Deception
by cleotheo
Summary: Events of the final battle leave Hermione broken and abandoned by the people she thought of as family. When she discovers the truth about that fateful day she sets out on a path of revenge. However, things don't go quite to plan when her revenge includes a certain blond Slytherin and her heart decides to get involved in matters, leading to unwanted feelings and complications.
1. Prologue

**A/N – New story time. Deception has 18 chapters, plus a prologue and epilogue, bringing the total up to 20. I will update this story two or three times a week, days varying depending on what I'm doing. **

**I just want to point out that this story does contain an extra-marital affair. (Although Draco and Hermione will not be cheating on each other, that's something I just don't do) I know some people aren't comfortable with affairs, so I thought I'd put a warning at the beginning. **

**For those who want to continue reading, I hope you enjoy.**

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><p><span><strong>Prologue.<strong>

In the distance Hogwarts was clearly visible as Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley took a moment to gather their thoughts. A lot had happened since they last saw their school nearly a year ago. If it hadn't been for the war currently raging on in the wizarding world the trio would have been safe in the castle, attending their seventh year of school. Instead they'd spent the previous year hunting down Horcrux's in an attempt to finally bring down the dark wizard, Lord Voldemort.

"We should be going," Harry said.

Taking hold of Hermione's hand, Harry began leading the way down towards the village. The trio walked at a brisk pace and reached the outskirts of the village in just a few hours. Being extra cautious not to be seen, the trio slipped into the backstreets of Hogsmeade. Almost immediately they realised their mistake when hooded figures started apparating into the village.

"He must have some sort of spell on the village to detect trespassers," Hermione whispered as the threesome hid in a dark alcove. She was referring to Voldemort, but they'd learnt the hard way that saying his name was taboo and would summon a handful of his followers to where they were.

"Then how do we escape?" Ron asked. "There's too many of them for us to fight."

"We could try running," Hermione suggested.

"Where to?" Harry responded. "Apart from Hogwarts there's nowhere anywhere near here. If we apparate they can trace us, and if we run they can track us down."

"So what are we going to do?" Ron pressed. For the time being they were safe, but eventually the Death Eaters would search the alcove.

Before Harry could answer the trio heard a creaking noise behind them. Whirling round they spotted a door opening behind them, and an old man peered out. They had no idea the back of the alcove hid a secret door, otherwise they might have tried it for themselves.

"Get inside quick," The man hissed.

Without hesitation the three teenagers bolted through the door, ending up in a small dingy room that looked as though it hadn't been cleaned properly for years. As the man quietly closed the door, all three teenagers tried to get a better look at him.

"Hey, I know you," Ron cried. "You run The Hog's Head."

"Yes," The man nodded. "I'm Aberforth."

"You're Dumbledore's brother," Harry gasped, spotting the family resemblance.

Aberforth nodded again. "Aye, Albus was my brother."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Hermione said kindly. "He was a great man."

"He was," Aberforth sighed. "We had our differences, but he always meant well. Anyway, I'm guessing you three need my help."

"We were trying to get up to Hogwarts," Harry explained. "But I'm not sure that's possible."

"It's possible," Aberforth said as he walked over to a portrait of a young girl. He quietly said something to the girl and she turned and headed down the path in the picture.

Harry, Ron and Hermione shared a bemused look as Aberforth remained standing in front of the picture, watching it intently. After about fifteen minutes the girl reappeared walking down the path, but she wasn't alone. With her was a boy, a boy they recognised as he moved closer.

"Neville?" Ron questioned.

Neville waved from the picture, before Aberforth pulled the frame away from the wall, revealing a tunnel. Grinning widely Neville climbed out of the tunnel, and explained that it led up to Hogwarts. He also spent a few minutes explaining that the vast majority of the students were holed up in the Room of Requirements, as they fought against Voldemort's regime in the school.

"Are you coming back with me?" Neville asked while Aberforth bustled about preparing baskets of food and drink for them to take back up to school.

"Yeah," Harry replied with a nod. "Let's go."

After thanking Aberforth and taking the baskets he'd prepared the quartet climbed into the tunnel and Neville led them back to Hogwarts. As they went they talked a bit about what they'd experience since they'd last seen each other. Neville filled them in on what school was now like while Harry, Ron and Hermione briefly mentioned their year on the run.

When they emerged from the tunnel, the group was met by stunned silence, followed by loud cheers when they realised the trio were really there. Harry, Ron and Hermione barely had time to register what the Room of Requirements looked like before they were swept into hugs by their friends and people they barely knew.

As the greetings continued, Hermione saw Harry get swept into a hug with Ginny and she had to swallow a flash of jealousy. Ginny had a long term crush on Harry and the previous year they'd had a brief relationship. Harry however had stopped things getting too serious, claiming the war with Voldemort had to be his priority and he had no time for romance. What Ginny didn't know was that he didn't want to get involved with her for another reason, he was already in love with Hermione.

Hermione herself hadn't discovered Harry's feelings for her until they were on the run from the Death Eaters, but when he confessed everything to her she admitted she had feelings for him too. Over the course of their year on the run the pair had developed their relationship, even though it wasn't always easy with Ron around. Luckily Ron approved of his friends relationship and did try and give them some privacy when he could.

Hermione smiled when she saw Harry pull out of Ginny's grasp, and she quickly made her way over to the pair. Giving Ginny a hug in greeting, she snuggled into Harry's side. Harry automatically put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head.

"You two are together?" Ginny gasped.

"Yes," Harry replied.

"But what about us?" Ginny questioned. "You said we couldn't be together because of the war."

"I'm sorry Ginny, but I don't feel like that about you," Harry sighed. "I was trying to let you down gently. I don't want to hurt you, but it's Hermione I love."

Ginny nodded and gulping down her tears she turned and barged her way through the crowds. Harry wondered if he should go after her, but Hermione told him to give her space. They had a Horcrux to find, they didn't have time to deal with an emotional teenager.

**xXx**

Three hours later an upset Ginny was the least of anyone's problems. Voldemort had cottoned onto the fact his Horcrux's were been destroyed and he'd made a bee-line for Hogwarts. Luckily Harry was able to use their connection to know he was coming, giving them time to evacuate the school and assemble the Order of the Phoenix. Now a full on battle was taking place inside the castle and across the grounds of the school.

In the midst of the fighting Harry, Ron and Hermione had managed to locate the Horcrux they were looking for. With it now destroyed all they needed to do was get close enough to Voldemort's snake, Nagini, and kill her as she was the last remaining Horcrux. Less than half an hour ago the trio had been tracking the snake, and had witnessed the death of Severus Snape, their Potions Professor. Before he died he'd given Harry a vial of memories and told him that they would reveal the truth to him. Harry had immediately set out to use the pensive in Dumbledore's office and while he allowed Hermione and Ron to accompany him to the office, he wouldn't let them view the memories with them.

"I need to do this alone," He told his friends. "You need to find Nagini and kill her. Once I've looked at these memories, I'm ending this for good."

While Harry had then slipped into Dumbledore's office, Hermione and Ron had returned to the battle in search of the snake. Hermione however couldn't concentrate, all she could think about was her boyfriend's impending showdown with Voldemort. As much as she had complete faith in Harry, she was still terrified of losing the wizard she loved.

"Hermione!" Ron's cry reached the brunette's ears seconds before she felt a body slam into her, knocking her to the ground.

Hermione was momentarily stunned by the fall, but as she came back to awareness she realised there was a dead weight on top of her. Carefully she crawled out from underneath whoever had fallen on her, but as she did so she spotted the familiar red hair of her best friend. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as she found herself looking into his lifeless blue eyes.

"Ron," Hermione whispered, clutching at her friend. "Ron, wake up," She cried, shaking his lifeless body as tears began to blur her vision. "Ron!"

With a low howl, she buried her head in Ron's chest, willing him to wake up. She knew he was dead, but in her heart she didn't yet believe it. He couldn't be dead, he was her best friend, he was supposed to survive and live a long, happy life. Hermione clung onto Ron, totally unconcerned by the battle raging on around her as she wept for the boy who'd been her friend since first year.

"Hermione."

Hermione barely registered the deep voice at first, but when it persisted she looked up. Through her tears she found Kingsley Shackelbolt standing over her and Ron. She was also vaguely aware that the sounds of battle had ceased, the only sounds were now shouts and cries.

"Is it over?" She whispered.

"No," Kingsley replied as he shook his head sadly. "He's withdrawn his troops and given us time to sort ourselves out. He then wants Harry to meet him in an hour, or they resume their attack."

"Harry." Hermione cried softly as she thought about how devastated her boyfriend would be at losing Ron.

"Let's get you inside," Kingsley said gently.

"Ron," Hermione said quietly, refusing to let go of her friend.

"We'll take him too, don't worry," Kingsley soothed.

Kingsley gestured to someone behind Hermione and she felt a pair of arms pulling her up. Vaguely she registered that it was Remus Lupin holding her up, but her attention was focused on Kingsley carefully levitating Ron's body. Slowly the group made their way towards The Great Hall.

When they entered they were greeted by a loud wail coming from Molly Weasley as she spotted her son. Lupin made sure Hermione was sitting down and he wrapped a blanket around her shoulders as she blankly watched the Weasleys crying over Ron. The only Weasley missing was Ginny and when Hermione looked around she found the redhead, lying on a nearby stretcher.

"Ginny," She gasped, hoping the Weasleys hadn't lost a second child.

"She's okay," Lupin soothed. "She was hit by a piece of the castle when it was hit with a curse. She was in a lot of pain so Madam Pomfrey gave her a sleeping draught."

Hermione nodded, but she barely had time to register that Ginny was okay when there was a commotion by the doors and Harry came barrelling into The Great Hall. He ran straight towards where Ron was lying and sunk down on his knees as he reached his best friend.

"No, Ron," He sobbed.

Hermione felt fresh tears begin to fall as she watched Harry crying over their friend. She also felt guilty, this was all her fault. Ron died saving her, if she'd been paying better attention she would have spotted whoever tried to kill her and could have reacted. Instead she had been totally oblivious and Ron had paid the price. She'd killed him, she'd killed her best friend.

"No Hermione. You can't think like that," Harry said, jumping up and wrapping his girlfriend in his arms. As he did so she realised she must have spoken her thoughts out loud. "It was an accident, a terrible accident."

"It should have been me," She said quietly. "He pushed me out of the way, I hadn't even seen it coming. I'm responsible."

"You're not," Arthur Weasley said through his tears. "Ron did what any decent person would have done, he saved his friend. If the positions were reversed, you would have done the same."

"If anyone's to blame it was the Death Eater scum that fired the curse," Harry snarled, wiping away his tears. For what was to come he needed to be focused, not upset. "Now it's time to end this for good."

"You're going to face him," Hermione gasped.

"Yes," Harry nodded. "Neville killed Nagini and Snape's memories gave me the answer of how to defeat him. I know what I have to do."

"Please come back to me," Hermione begged Harry. "I can't lose you, too."

"I can't promise that, Hermione," Harry said softly. Gently he cupped Hermione's face in his hand and gave her a lingering kiss. "But I want you to know that whatever happens, I love you. I always will."

"I love you too," Hermione replied as the tears dripped down her face.

Harry gave Hermione one final kiss, before turning to the Weasleys and giving them all a hug. He then turned and strode out of The Great Hall, heading for the final showdown with Voldemort.

**xXx**

Hermione awoke with a start, her hand reaching out for Harry and finding an empty bed. Sitting up she found herself in the boys' dorms of Gryffindor Tower, and events of the previous day hit her. They'd lost Ron and they'd very nearly lost Harry as well.

After heading off to confront Voldemort there was an anxious wait for nearly an hour, until Voldemort's amplified voice announced Harry's death. Not wanting to believe it everyone had gathered outside as Voldemort and his Death Eaters advanced on the school. When Hermione had spotted Harry's unmoving body being carried by a sobbing Hagrid, she'd collapsed onto the floor, completely wrecked.

Hermione was in such a state that she was barely aware of what occurred after that. She could vaguely recall Voldemort trying to get Draco Malfoy over to their side of the battle, but even his mother's pleas failed to convince the blond to cross over and stand with the Death Eaters. Hermione was guessing Malfoy had spotted something no-one else had as while Voldemort was busy with him, Harry was waking up. Harry being alive took Voldemort by surprise, giving Harry the upper hand in the battle that followed. Eventually Harry prevailed and Voldemort was no more.

After a brief moment of joy at Harry's victory, the mood once again turned sombre. As great as it was to be free of the dark wizard, a lot of people had lost their lives in the battle. Hermione and Harry's main loss was Ron, but they were aware that other people had suffered losses too and plenty more people were seriously injured and not guaranteed on making it.

In the aftermath of the battle, Hogwarts played host to everyone as they tried to cope with what had happened. After a few hours trying to help the survivors, Molly had sent an exhausted Harry and Hermione up to Gryffindor Tower to get some rest. The pair had curled up in Harry's bed in the boys' dorms and he'd held her as she cried herself to sleep.

Hermione was guessing Harry had gotten up to help the Order and hadn't wanted to wake her. Climbing out of bed she made a quick trip to the bathroom, before returning to the room and pulling on her clothes. She then headed downstairs to see if she could be of any help, she would rather keep busy than dwelling on losing Ron.

When Hermione arrived down in the common room she spotted a tearful Ginny curled up beside the fire. Ginny's arm was in a sling and she had a bandage over her forehead. Hermione was just about to make her way over to Ginny, when Molly suddenly stormed up to her.

"You murderer," She screeched.

Before Hermione could react Molly had raised her hand and slapped her hard across the face. Hermione staggered slightly as Molly continued to rant and rave at Hermione, calling her all sorts of horrible names.

"Enough, Molly," Arthur called, dragging his wife away from Hermione.

Hermione was shocked to see venom in Arthur's eyes when he looked at her, and looking around the common room she found the rest of the Weasleys staring at her in the same disgusted manner. Clearly with time to reflect on Ron's death they'd realised what Hermione had known from the start, that she was responsible. If it hadn't been for her they would still have Ron with them, she'd cost them a son and a brother.

As well as the Weasleys looking at her with hate, Hermione was heartbroken to find Harry giving her the same look. The previous night he'd held her and told her over and over that she wasn't to blame, but something had obviously changed with him as well. He was clearly blaming Hermione for the loss of his best friend.

"You need to leave," Harry said coldly as Hermione continued to look at him, her eyes pleading for some kind of support.

"I don't understand," Hermione whispered.

"We don't want you here," Harry said. "You killed Ron. If it wasn't for you, he would be standing here with us."

Hermione nodded sadly. "I'll just grab my things."

"Good," Harry answered, still speaking in the same cold, hard voice. "Get your things and leave. We never want to see you again."

As she turned and headed back up to the boys dorms, the tears were once again flowing down Hermione's face. As quick as she could, Hermione grabbed her bag and emptied it out onto Harry's bed. Hastily she repacked it with just her stuff, before turning and leaving the bedroom. This time when she entered the common room it was deserted, apart from Harry and Ginny sitting by the fire. They both looked up when Hermione entered the room, but they soon turned away and continued on with their whispered conversation.

Still crying softly, Hermione left Gryffindor Tower and slowly made her way through the school. While she saw a few members of the Order wandering around, none of them glared at her with the same hate she'd seen in the Weasleys eyes. A few even said hello, but Hermione ignored them as she left the castle and made her way towards the school's boundary line.

Once she was off school premises Hermione turned and looked back at the castle one final time. She could hardly believe that less than twenty four hours ago her, Harry and Ron were just making their way to Hogwarts. Now a day later not only had she lost Ron, but she'd lost Harry and the Weasleys as well. In a matter of hours her entire life had been blown apart, and she was left a broken shell.

Slowly turning away from Hogwarts, Hermione pulled out her wand. Drying her eyes and trying to focus, she waved her wand and disappeared from the Scottish countryside with a loud crack.


	2. Chapter 1

**Fifteen months later.**

Hermione bolted upright in bed, Harry's voice still ringing in her head. Almost every night she dreamt of either him or Ron, at least with Ron she could banish the nightmares with happy memories but with Harry she could never move past their last conversation. No matter how hard she tried to think of happier times, all she could see was the hatred in his eyes as he told her to leave and never return.

Shaking her head to dislodge her dream, Hermione pushed back the covers and got out of bed. She made her way to the bathroom and as she turned on the shower, she looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were bloodshot and as usual she had dark circles underneath them, both were a result of the constant nightmares that now plagued her life. Her brown eyes were also completely devoid of life, after everything that had happened she'd locked her heart away and refused to live life to the full, instead she merely went through the motions.

Going through the motions was exactly what Hermione did that morning. She showered and washed her hair, before blow-drying it and getting dressed for work. She then applied a light dusting of make-up. Staring at her reflection once again, Hermione noted the changes from when she first got up. She looked like an attractive young witch without a care in the world, only Hermione knew that wasn't the case. The nice clothes and the effort she put into her looks was merely her armour, if she looked good then no-one could see the devastation inside.

Once she was dressed Hermione headed into her small kitchen and made herself a cup of coffee. Her nightmare had woken her up slightly before her alarm was due to go off, meaning she had a few extra minutes before she was due at work. Hermione worked at the Australian Ministry of Magic in a mundane job in the Department of International Co-operation. The wizard she worked directly for often jetted off around the globe, but Hermione was stuck in the Ministry doing paperwork. If she stuck at her job she would end up with the chance of getting promoted to a job like her boss's, but to be honest Hermione didn't know if she wanted to be stuck working in the Ministry for the rest of her life. Although the trouble was she didn't know what she wanted to do, since the war she'd just felt lost and alone, which was how she ended up in Australia in the first place.

After leaving Hogwarts, Hermione had apparated to London where she'd found a cheap hotel and holed up for almost a week as she tried to deal with her grief. When she did finally decide it was time to make some decisions about her life, she decided on going to find her parents. Before the war she'd sent them off to Australia with modified memories to protect them. Harry had been talking about helping Hermione locate them and returning their memories, but with him not wanting to know her she was left to do it on her own.

Hermione travelled to Australia the muggle way and once she reached Australia she found herself another cheap hotel and set about finding her parents. It took her almost three months to locate them and when she did, Hermione didn't get the happy reunion she'd been pinning her hopes on. Her parents was furious to discover what she'd done and even though she tried to explain her motives, they still weren't happy with her. Since they were settled in Australia they decided to stay put, so Hermione remained in Australia in the hopes of rebuilding their relationship. However even now, a year later, her relationship with her parents was frosty at best.

With staying in Australia, Hermione got a job in the country's Ministry of Magic. Despite technically not having her final exam results a quick check on her academic records showed that she was good enough to do almost any job. While Hermione's job definitely wasn't fulfilling, she had no desire to find a new one. She only stayed in the country because of her parents and because there was no reason for her to go anywhere. She wasn't wanted back at home and even though she wasn't particularly wanted by her parents, it was better than being all alone.

Dragging herself out of her thoughts, Hermione finished her coffee before grabbing her bag and leaving for work. Arriving at the Ministry, she made her way up to her office and settled at her desk. Already there was a pile of paperwork for her to get through, and she would only get more throughout the day.

Hermione spent her morning doing paperwork and when lunchtime hit she made her way down to the staff canteen on the ground floor. Hermione had just grabbed a sandwich when she heard a familiar voice behind her. Turning around slowly she sucked in her breath as she spotted the familiar form of her ex-boyfriend entering the canteen. She'd thought the voice was in her head, but it hadn't been, Harry was in Australia for some reason and he was standing opposite her.

Harry had frozen in the doorway when he'd spotted Hermione. He'd had no idea where Hermione had gone after the war, and after what had happened with Ron, he hadn't been bothered. However it was much easier to forget his feelings for her when he didn't have to face her. Looking at her now, and seeing how attractive she looked, Harry was struggling to remember that she was a killer. She was the person responsible for his best friend's death.

Hermione watched as Harry said something to the wizard he was with, before turning around and leaving the canteen. Without thinking Hermione put her sandwich back down on the counter and went after Harry. She didn't know what she wanted from him, she just knew she couldn't let him walk away without even speaking to him.

"Harry, wait," She called, spotting his dark head disappearing around the corner.

"I have nothing to say to you," Harry replied as Hermione ran to catch up with him.

"Please," Hermione cried, pulling on Harry's arm and causing him to spin around to face her.

"What?" Harry's snarl almost made Hermione back off, but she remained where she was. "Well, what do you want?" He demanded harshly.

"I don't know," Hermione whispered. "I just wanted to talk to you."

"And why would I want to talk to you?" Harry sneered. "I thought I made it clear last year, I don't want to know you anymore."

"Why?" Hermione asked. "What changed?"

"What changed was Ginny. She woke up and told us the truth," Harry replied. "She told us what really happened."

"What do you mean, what really happened?" Hermione frowned.

"She saw the entire thing Hermione, she saw what you did," Harry said coldly. "She saw you pull Ron in front of you to protect yourself. You used him as a shield, you sacrificed him to save yourself. How could you?"

"I didn't," Hermione protested. "She must be confused or something. I would never do that, Harry. I had no idea what was happening, Ron dove on top of me."

"Ginny's adamant about what she saw," Harry replied. "She was trying to tell people before she had to be sedated. She couldn't believe it when she woke up and found out that you were playing the victim. You're a cold blooded killer Hermione, and we want nothing to do with you. You're evil."

Hermione recoiled at Harry's words, staring at the man she once shared a bed with. She couldn't believe he would think so badly of her. She didn't know if Ginny was just confused or being malicious, but either way she couldn't believe Harry's reaction. They'd been friends since they were eleven and after everything they'd been through together, did he really think she was capable of sacrificing Ron to save herself?

"You're wrong," Hermione whispered quietly. "You're wrong."

Turning on her heel she ran away from Harry as quickly as she could. Flying through the Ministry she headed back up to her office and grabbed her bag. By this time the tears were flowing down her face and she quickly told one of the girls in the office she was feeling unwell, before leaving work and heading home.

For a long time Hermione sat in her small flat, replaying what Harry had told her. Suddenly the Weasleys change of attitude towards her made sense. While she was in bed, Ginny had woken up and started spreading her poison. The question was, why? Was she genuinely confused with everything that had happened and misunderstood something she'd seen, or did she knew exactly what she was saying and was saying it to get rid of Hermione for some reason? Or was Ginny right, and was it Hermione who was blocking out the truth? Could she have done something as terrible as to use Ron to save herself?

Hermione refused to believe she would do such a thing. The war was tough and she desperately wanted to survive, but there was no way she would have sacrificed Ron to save herself. If she'd seen a curse heading in his direction she would have saved him regardless of her own safety. There's no way she valued her life more than his, she would have willingly sacrificed herself for either him or Harry.

As much as Hermione knew she hadn't done what Ginny was accusing her of, she had to be sure. The events surrounding Ron's death were something she chose not to dwell on and she'd buried the memory deep. What she needed to do was dig it out and examine it for answers. Whatever the result she needed to know what had happened. How exactly did Ron die?

Hermione knew what she needed was a pensieve, that way she could examine the memory fully. While she didn't own one, she was lucky enough to know a man who did. Her next door neighbour, Brett, was a writer and he used a pensive to help with his writing ideas. Hermione had made friends with Brett upon moving into her flat, and she knew he would lend her the pensieve if she wanted it.

One quick trip next door and Hermione was sitting on her sofa with a pensieve placed in the middle of her coffee table. Now all she had to do was pluck up the courage to check the memories. Reliving Ron's death wasn't something she wanted to do, but it was something she needed to do. She needed to prove that Ginny was wrong, she didn't kill Ron.

Lifting her wand up to her head, she placed the wood against her temple and slowly withdrew the silvery memory. Placing the memory into the pensieve, Hermione looked at the swirling substance for a few minutes. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Hermione leant over the pensieve and plunged into her memory.

After a minute of what felt like she was falling, Hermione found herself in the school grounds. It took her a couple of minutes to regain her bearings, but when she did she easily spotted her past self. Hermione made her way over to where her past self was battling a Death Eater. Ron was nearby, battling his own Death Eater, but when Hermione looked around she couldn't see anyone who could have cast the curse. The only other Death Eaters she could see were battling someone else, further away.

Hermione watched intently as Ron stunned the Death Eater he was fighting and turned to check on her past self. Hermione's past self had also stunned the Death Eater she was fighting, and was looking longingly towards the castle. Hermione knew her past self was thinking about Harry, and hoping he was okay.

"_Hermione!"_

Hermione watched in horror as Ron's shout echoed around the courtyard, moments before he slammed into her. She saw the flash of green light hit him directly in the side, but she'd missed where it had come from. Looking around wildly, she found no sign of any Death Eaters. Where on earth had the curse come from?

Before Hermione could spot the culprit, she was pulled back out of the pensieve and landed in her front room. Hermione stared at the pensieve, taking in what she'd discovered. She now knew for definite that things had happened as she remembered, Ron had been the one to jump in front of the curse and she hadn't even known it was coming. The memory however had left her with a few questions. Mainly who had cast the curse that hit Ron, and where did Ginny fit into things?

Deciding to take a second look at the memory, Hermione steeled herself before diving into the pensieve for a second time. This time she gained her bearings quicker. Deciding to concentrate on Ron, she went over to where he was battling the Death Eater. When he started to make his way over to her past self she followed him and this time she saw him pause and scowl at a brick wall. Hermione looked at the wall herself, but didn't see anything that could cause Ron to scowl the way he had. A second later she spotted a movement by the wall and a green light appeared. Ron reacted to the light immediately, screaming Hermione's name and pushing her out of the way.

A minute later Hermione was once again ejected from the pensieve. This time however she knew she was heading back into the pensieve for a third time. Now she knew where the curse had come from, she knew where to concentrate her attention. She knew that if she hadn't seen anything that nothing would be there, but the wall was directly under where she was staring so Hermione was hoping she'd registered something in her subconscious that could help her identify Ron's killer.

Diving into the pensieve for the third time, Hermione immediately turned her attention towards the wall where the curse was going to come from. Positioning herself near to where Ron was going to fall, Hermione concentrated on the wall. When her past self looked towards the castle, a glimmer of red hair came into view crouching down beside the wall. Hermione gasped as she recognised who the hair belonged to, it was Ginny. Ginny was the one crouched beside the wall.

Barely able to believe what she was witnessing Hermione watched as a jet of green light came from where Ginny was crouching. Like always Ron screamed her name almost as soon as the light appeared and by the time it reached her, he was shielding her with his body. Before she exited the pensieve, Hermione took one last look towards the wall but she couldn't see anything. By this point her past self was on the floor, meaning she had no idea what was happening beside the wall.

When Hermione found herself ejected from the pensieve for the third time, she collapsed onto the sofa in shock. She still wanted to check the memory a few more times to be sure, but it would appear that Ginny had been the one to cast the curse that had killed Ron. Why she'd done it, Hermione wasn't sure, but her lies were starting to make sense. She was clearly worried that Hermione had seen something so by getting in first she was making it hard for Hermione to be believed. After all who would believe Ginny would kill her brother, even if it was an accident.

After recovering from the shock a bit, Hermione viewed the memory again, and again and again. By the time she was finished she was sure of a few things. Firstly, Ginny had thrown the curse. And more importantly, it hadn't been an accident or a misplaced shot, it had been deliberate. She'd tried to kill Hermione, and if it hadn't been for Ron she would have succeeded.

After returning the pensieve to her neighbour, Hermione settled down to think about what she'd discovered and what she was going to do about it. Ginny had killed Ron and made sure Harry and the Weasleys hated her. After all this time Hermione didn't want apologies, she wanted vengeance. Ginny had destroyed her life and now Hermione was going to return the favour.

"Watch out Ginny," Hermione whispered to herself. "I'm coming for you."


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N- Thanks for all the great reviews. I was a bit unsure how people would react to the fact Ginny had been the one responsible for Ron's death, but I'm so pleased by the positive response. I also know people are eager to get some Draco in the story, so hopefully this chapter will help a bit. Draco isn't actually in the chapter, but it does became clear how he's going to be involved in Hermione's plan for revenge. **

**I've also decided on my publishing schedule for this year. Long stories (10 chapters and over), will be published on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be when I post my shorter stories and one shots.**

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><p>After discovering what Ginny had done, Hermione wanted nothing more than to begin her plan for revenge. However she knew she couldn't just rush off back to England, she needed to get things sorted in Australia first. It took Hermione two weeks to settle up her life in Australia and head back to England. She quit her job, gave up the lease on her flat and told her parents she was homesick and was going back to London. No-one caused a fuss over her departure and rather depressingly for Hermione, no-one objected either and tried to persuade her to stay in Australia.<p>

Hermione arrived back in London the last week of a scorching hot August. The second she set foot on English soil she had the urge to go straight after Ginny, but she knew she had to be patient. First she needed to gather as much information about her life as possible, before deciding on the best way of blowing it apart.

For a start Hermione checked into a cheap, little hotel to work out how to progress. For the year she'd been living in Australia she'd saved the majority of her pay check each month, and that combined with her pre-war saving's and a lump sum she'd received from the British Ministry a few months after Voldemort's defeat, was more than enough for her to live on for the foreseeable future. All she needed was a small flat somewhere and she was good to go.

Until she came up with a solid plan, Hermione also wanted to remain under the radar. She had no intention of broadcasting her return, and when she did venture into the wizarding world she planned on using glamour charms and disguises. When the time was right she wanted Ginny to know exactly who had blown her world apart, and why, but for now she was happy to remain low-key.

After a day's rest to deal with her jetlag, Hermione applied a few glamour charms and ventured into the wizarding world to get a paper. She didn't know if The Daily Prophet would be any use in her quest to find out about Ginny's life, but it would fill her in on what was happening these days and she could always look through the rental ads for a flat.

Since it was so nice Hermione decided to read her paper in a small café, which had outdoor seating. After grabbing a drink, she settled down with the paper and began catching up on what she'd missed. As she read the paper Hermione quickly discovered that the wizarding world was thriving in the aftermath of the war and Harry was a hero. She was only a third of the way through the paper and she'd already read four different articles regarding her ex-boyfriend. It would appear that Harry was now an auror, and he appeared to still be single, which was slightly surprising to Hermione as she figured Ginny would have went after him the second she'd gotten her out of the picture. After all, Hermione was guessing that Harry was the reason Ginny had tried to kill her in the first place.

Continuing on through the paper, Hermione came across the social pages and was surprised to find a large picture of Ginny marrying Draco Malfoy. Hermione stared at the headline: _Malfoy Heir weds Youngest Weasley, _for some time before reading the article. According to the article the pair had gotten together while at school, Ginny was obviously in her last year while Draco had been forced to return as part of his probation after the war. The article also dated the wedding as the day before Hermione arrived in London and it went on to announce that the happy couple would be spending the next fortnight honeymooning in the Maldives. The article also mentioned that while Draco had joined the family business, Ginny had yet to decide on a career path, meaning that for the time being she would just be a wife.

After reading the article, Hermione turned her focus to the picture. As well as Ginny and Draco, the picture showed all the Weasleys, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy and Harry. Looking closely Hermione could see the only person whose wide smile was genuine was Ginny, everyone else were putting on a front for the camera. Hermione was guessing the Weasleys and Harry's fake smiles, stemmed from the fact they wouldn't approve of Draco as a husband for Ginny. Most likely Lucius and Narcissa felt the same about the redheaded witch, hence their fake smiles at their son's wedding.

Draco however, was who Hermione was really interested in. She was curious as to why his smile was fake. She only recognised it as such because in the last fifteen months she'd become an expert at plastering on a fake smile and hiding what she really felt. Looking at the picture of Draco, it was clear he was doing exactly that. To the casual observer he looked like a happy groom, but to Hermione he looked as though he would rather be anywhere else than marrying Ginny. That of course begged the question, if he was so unhappy, why marry her? Exactly what sort of hold did Ginny have over the former Slytherin?

After a few minutes, Hermione shook her head and brushed her curiosities aside. She really couldn't care less why Draco had married Ginny, all she was bothered about was that he had, and he clearly wasn't happy about it. Ginny however looked ecstatic at becoming Mrs Malfoy, and that was all Hermione needed to know. If Ginny was happy with Draco, she was going to take that happiness away from her. She was going to ruin her marriage.

After finishing reading the paper, Hermione left the café and decided to take a walk. As she walked a plan started to form in her head. She'd need to look into Ginny's life a bit more but from what she'd read at the minute her life seemed to be Draco. She hadn't yet gotten a job, so from what Hermione could see all she had was her husband. That however was a perfect starting point, to begin Hermione was going to take Draco away from her the way Ginny had taken Harry from her.

Hermione briefly considered paying someone to seduce either Ginny or Draco, but she wanted to do the destroying herself. She wasn't sure if Draco would go for her, but it was definitely her first choice. She was going to seduce Draco and draw him into an affair, before arranging for Ginny to catch them. Hermione couldn't help but smirk at the thought of Ginny catching her with Draco, she would be livid.

Hermione also knew it couldn't just be a one-off between her and Draco. She wanted Ginny destroyed, and what better way than to discover that for months your husband's being sleeping with the witch you tried to kill. The plan was a long term one, but Hermione was more than happy to take her time and ensure that Ginny's life was properly destroyed.

Now all she needed to do was gather as much information about Draco as possible. She needed to know where she could find him and when. Hermione wanted to know the perfect time and place to strike. Luckily since he was on his honeymoon, she had plenty of time to do research and set everything in motion.

**xXx**

A week later Hermione stood outside the offices of Malfoy Holdings. She'd spent a week researching and devising a plan to get hold of Draco's movements. She'd briefly considered trying to get a job at the company using polyjuice potion or glamour charms, but it just wasn't feasible. Firstly she wanted Draco to know exactly who he was cheating on Ginny with, and secondly she needed to be able to come and go freely without a job to tie her down. Hermione's second option was to get to his secretary and see if she could pump her for information. A bit of research however showed the witch had been working for the family for years, so even though Draco had just started work she would likely by loyal to the Malfoys.

The plan she'd finally settled on had come about as she was researching the Malfoy business. Hermione had come across a large article about Lucius, written a few years ago, which gave her an idea. The article itself was pretty boring but there was a picture of Lucius sitting at his desk in the office. On the desk was a large book, which when Hermione studied the picture closer was revealed to be an appointment book. The article had also claimed that Lucius was big on tradition and the company was ran very much as his father ran it and it would run the same when Draco took over. Between the article and the picture, Hermione was betting that Draco had his own appointment book just like the one his father had.

Hermione's problem was then working out how to get her hands on it. Again it was more research that provided her with an answer. While scouring a spell book she found a transference spell. All she needed was a blank book and with this spell she could transfer the contents of Draco's appointment book into it. An additional spell would also ensure anything written in the original book would show up in her copy as well. Hopefully that would be all she needed to get a hold of his schedule and work out the appropriate time to approach him.

Hermione had also put a plan into place to ensure she gained access to the book, hence her presence at the company's offices. Quickly checking that her glamour charms were in place and she wouldn't be recognised as Hermione Granger, she entered the main lobby of the posh office block. The two witches sitting at the reception desk were busy gossiping and barely glanced in Hermione's direction as she claimed to have an appointment with Mr Malfoy. They didn't even bother checking if she was telling the truth, they just directed her to the top floor and carried on gossiping.

Hermione knew from her research that both Lucius and Draco had offices on the top floor of the building. When she arrived at the top floor, she walked straight past Lucius's outer office and headed to Draco's. Knocking on the open door she smiled warmly at the witch who was sitting at her desk.

"Hi, I'm Lavender. I'm an old friend of Draco's from school," Hermione said, the rehearsed lie slipping from her lips with ease. "I moved abroad a few years ago, but I was in the country and decided to pop in and say hello."

"I'm afraid Mr Malfoy's on honeymoon," Draco's secretary, Diana, replied.

"Honeymoon?" Hermione gasped, pretending to be shocked. "I had no idea he was married. Although I always did think he and Pansy made a great couple."

"He didn't marry Pansy," Diana said. "His wife's name is Ginny."

"Ginny! Ginny Weasley," Hermione cried, again appearing totally shocked. "Wow, now that is a major surprise. I knew her in school, and I never would have put her with Draco. She was such a little social climber, she spent most of her time hanging around Harry Potter."

"She is still friends with him from what I hear," Diana confided. "Personally, I think it's a shame she switched her attention to Draco. The poor thing was in such a state after everything that had happened, she managed to get her claws into him before he knew what hit him."

"Poor Draco," Hermione said, moving further into the room. As she did so she spotted a book that looked exactly like the one in the picture of Lucius sitting on the corner of Diana's desk.

"Poor Draco indeed," Diana nodded. "Although if his wife carries on spending the way she has been, he could literally be poor. You'd never believe what the wedding cost. Honestly, it was astronomical."

Feigning interest Hermione managed to get Draco's secretary talking about Ginny. It was handy to know what people thought of her, and from the sounds of things she wasn't the most popular person in the Malfoy offices. Diana even let it slip that Lucius and Narcissa detested her and merely tolerated her for Draco's sake.

As Diana was gossiping, Hermione used the opportunity to cast a silent spell on the other witch. The spell would just make her feel nauseous, but she needed a distraction so she could get Draco's appointment book and cast the spells she needed.

"Oh." Diana paused mid-sentence as her hand flew up to cover her mouth. "I'm going to be sick, excuse me."

Hermione waited until Draco's secretary had bolted from the room, before hurrying over to her desk. Flicking through the book she found it was indeed Draco's appointment book. Pulling the blank book from her bag she placed it on top of the appointment book and began casting the transference spell. Once that was complete she cast the spell that linked the books, meaning any new entry would appear in her book. Hermione just had time to check the spell had worked and the appointments transferred into her book, before Diana came back into the room.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked sympathetically. She felt bad for causing the poor woman to be sick, but she'd needed to get her out of the room.

"Yes," Diana nodded. "I don't know what came over me. I just suddenly felt really nauseous."

"It might be the heat," Hermione suggested. The week she'd been back in England had been sweltering and even after being in Australia for months, Hermione found the weather hot.

"It has been a hot summer," Diana agreed.

"Well since Draco's not here, I guess I'll be leaving," Hermione said.

"I'll let him know you called in," Diana promised with a smile.

"Thanks," Hermione replied. "It was nice meeting you, goodbye."

Hermione moved towards the door, but before she exited the room she cast a quick memory charm on Diana. Now Draco's secretary would have no memory of this conversation, therefore she wouldn't be telling her boss anything when he returned.

After leaving the offices of Malfoy Holdings, Hermione made her way back to the hotel where she checked out the appointment book. There were a few appointments scheduled for the upcoming months, but as of yet there were no solid details she could use. However the few appointments that had already passed were full of details, so Hermione was guessing the hotel information and exact timings of the upcoming appointments were added once they were sorted.

Placing the book safely in her bag, she grabbed the newspaper and turned to the flat listings. Now she had a way to Draco, she needed somewhere to live. From the looks of his upcoming appointments a lot of travel was in the pipeline, but she would still need somewhere to call home for the foreseeable future. Maybe once Ginny had received her comeuppance, Hermione could think about settling down herself, but right now all she could think about was her vengeance and destroying Ginny's life, just like she'd destroyed hers.


	4. Chapter 3

Finding the right time to approach Draco took slightly longer than Hermione had originally anticipated. By the time the Malfoys honeymoon was over Hermione had rented a cheap flat, near to where the couple lived. She knew from Draco's appointment book that his first few weeks back were focused on catching up on what had been happening and a few meetings either in his office or elsewhere in England.

With that in mind she used the first few weeks to follow Ginny, using tracking charms and glamour charms on herself. It soon became clear that Ginny had effortlessly slipped into the role of trophy wife. She had no job and seemed content to spend her time shopping and hanging out with friends. Hermione also noticed that while she visited The Burrow a few times a week, Draco rarely accompanied her.

Another thing Hermione noticed was that Ginny never visited Ron's grave. Hermione herself found out where Ron was buried and she'd gone to pay her friend a visit one night shortly after returning to the country, and she also returned almost every week to leave flowers. Hermione often found flowers on the grave from the other Weasleys, but never any from Ginny. She never visited the place, although considering she was responsible for his death Hermione wasn't greatly surprised by this. She doubted Ginny would want a reminder of what she'd done.

About a month after the couple returned from honeymoon, Hermione had originally planned to make her move. Draco was due to spend the weekend in the South of France, but at the last minute the trip was cancelled. Mysteriously, a few more foreign trips were also cancelled in the next few weeks, but six weeks later Hermione found another opportunity. Draco was in Portugal for four days and this time the trip hadn't been cancelled.

Using the information in the appointment book, Hermione booked herself a room at the same hotel as Draco, using a fake name. A bit of chatting to the receptionist also revealed that he was there alone, there was no sign of his wife. For a couple of days Hermione observed him from a distance before deciding to make her move. She knew from an overheard conversation with the wizard he was doing business with that he planned on having a few drinks in the bar that evening, and Hermione intended to join him.

Hermione spent all afternoon in her room, getting ready to seduce Draco. Hermione wasn't exactly inexperienced with men, but she'd never set out of seduce someone before. Usually when she dressed up and went out, men hit on her, not the other way around and she had to admit to being quite nervous about the entire thing. Especially considering there was the possibility Draco might reject her based on who she was. Her research had shown just how much the Malfoys had changed after the war and the effort they were putting into rebuilding their reputation, but she still didn't know if Draco would sleep with a muggleborn.

There was however only one way to find out, and Hermione aimed to do just that. Pulling out her slinkiest underwear set she slipped into the black strapless bra and thong. She then pulled on an emerald dress, which hugged her every curve. The dress was shorter than she normally wore, ending mid-thigh, and the top was low cut enough to display her cleavage to full effect. Despite the low cut top and short skirt, Hermione didn't think she looked too tarty when she checked her reflection in the mirror. The dress did enough to draw attention to her, but it didn't make her look like a cheap tart.

Once she was dressed, Hermione applied a fine layer of make-up and used magic to control her hair. She pinned a few pieces away from her face, but let the rest cascade down her back in a river of curls. Hermione then spritzed herself with her favourite perfume and slipped on her black stilettoes. Grabbing her bag, she checked she had everything, took one final glance in the mirror and set off to seduce Ginny's husband.

Like she expected Hermione found Draco in the hotel's bar. Taking a deep breath she took a moment to remember why she was doing this, before sauntering over to the bar. Coming up beside Draco she gave her order to the barman, before glancing to the side and pretending to just notice Draco for the first time.

"Draco Malfoy, fancy seeing you here," She declared.

While she may have been pretending to just notice Draco, it was her first real chance to get a good look at the wizard beside her. He was still easily recognisable with his pale skin, white blond hair and distinctive grey eyes. He also seemed to be even better looking than Hermione remembered. Hermione had noticed his good looks back in school, but given their less than friendly relationship she'd never really given it much thought, but now she could freely admit the wizard in front of her was extremely good looking.

"Granger?" Draco questioned cautiously as his eyes flicked up and down the stunning woman next to him.

"How sweet, you remember me," Hermione grinned.

"I almost didn't recognise you though," Draco answered. "You've certainly changed a lot."

"In a good way or a bad way?" Hermione asked, reaching for the drink the barman had just placed in front of her.

"Definitely good," Draco said as his eyes yet again traversed Hermione's body. "You're pretty hot, Granger."

"Thank you," Hermione smiled as she placed her glass back down and settled her hand on Draco's arm. "You're quite hot yourself, Malfoy. And just for the record, my name's Hermione. I prefer being called that to Granger."

"Okay, Hermione," Draco said, putting emphasis on her given name. "In that case, I prefer Draco to Malfoy."

"Do you really?" Hermione asked. "Your friends used to call you Malfoy back in school."

"Not my real friends," Draco pointed out. "My real friends call me Draco."

"And yet you want me to call you Draco," Hermione mused.

"I prefer a beautiful witch to use my given name," Draco answered, throwing Hermione a smouldering look.

Hermione had to smile at Draco's words, it would appear that seducing him was going to prove easier than she'd anticipated. If things progressed in the same vein as they were now, all she would have to do was sit back and let Draco work his charm on her.

"So Hermione," Draco smiled, once again emphasising her name. "What brings you to sunny Portugal? Are you here on business or pleasure?"

"I'm just travelling," Hermione shrugged. "I was hoping the trip would be pleasurable, but I find you get more pleasure out of life with another person in the mix."

"And do you have another person to make your trip pleasurable?" Draco questioned.

"Not yet," Hermione answered, running her fingers up and down Draco's arm. "I'm still searching."

"Something tells me you'll be successful in your search," Draco smirked.

"I hope so," Hermione replied, smiling coyly at Draco as she picked up her drink and drained the glass.

"Do you want another?" Draco offered, gesturing to the empty glass.

"Yes, please."

Draco ordered a refill for both Hermione and himself as the flirting continued. After a few more drinks, Draco had his hand resting on Hermione's bare leg as the pair inched closer to one another. After finishing yet another round of drinks, Draco asked if Hermione wanted yet another refill.

"Not right now," She replied, shaking her head. "Right now, I feel like dancing."

While there was gentle background music in the bar, across the hallway was another bar with loud music and a large dance floor.

"Do you want to join me?" Hermione asked as she hopped off the barstool she was sitting on.

"Why not," Draco replied. "It could be fun."

"Oh, it will be fun," Hermione grinned, as she grabbed hold of Draco's hand and led him across the hallway.

The second bar was darker than the one they had come from, with its low, seductive lighting. There was a small smattering of people in the bar, all of them couples and all of them totally oblivious to anyone but the person they were dancing with. The music wasn't overly loud, and the tempo of the songs were perfect for a bit of close dancing.

"Shall we?" Hermione questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Come on, Hermione, show me what you've got," Draco answered, dragging the brunette witch over to a secluded corner of the floor.

Hermione flung her arms loosely around Draco's neck as they began moving to the music. After a few minutes Draco's hands fell to Hermione's hips, and he pulled her even closer to him. Hermione smiled happily as she continued to move against Draco. Their dancing was very much a prelude of what was to come and she knew that unless they were interrupted, or he got a sudden attack of guilt, they would end up in bed before the night was through.

Hermione was surprised by how much she was looking forward to sleeping with Draco. When she'd came up with the initial plan she certainly wasn't opposed to bedding Draco and she'd readily admitted he was good looking. She had however thought the main attraction would come from the knowledge she bedding Ginny's husband, she hadn't been prepared for how she would react to Draco himself. The second they started speaking she could feel the sparks between them and she had to wonder if the simmering attraction had always been there between them, but they'd just ignored it in school given the ways things were.

The more they danced the closer Draco and Hermione got, and before long they were practically glued together. Draco's hands had wandered all over Hermione's body and she could feel the effect she was having on him. Hermione had also let her hands wander over Draco, admiring how toned he was.

"Do you want another drink?" Draco asked quietly. "I've got a bottle in my room."

"That sounds great," Hermione answered.

They both knew Draco wasn't inviting Hermione up to his room for a drink, but neither of them mentioned what was really going on as they left the bar and headed towards the lifts. The short journey up to Draco's suite was made in silence, but the atmosphere between the pair was electric. Every time their eyes met, they could both see the blatant desire in the other ones orbs.

Eventually the pair reached their destination and Draco unlocked the door. Hermione entered the room first, with Draco hot on her heels. Pushing the door shut behind him, Draco strode towards Hermione and pulled her to him without preamble. Without a word being exchanged Draco crashed his lips into Hermione's, one hand reaching up and tangling in her thick curls while the other fell to her hip and pulled her even closer. Hermione hungrily returned the kiss as she wrapped her arms tightly around Draco's neck and pressed herself as close to him as it was possible to get.

"Damn," Draco breathed as they finally parted their lips. Neither of them moved away though, so they were still pressed tight together. "Do you still want a drink?"

"We both know I didn't come up here for a drink," Hermione smirked. Placing tiny, delicate kisses on Draco's jaw, she looked up at him through her eyelashes. "So why don't you give me what I did come for."

"And what would that be?" Draco questioned.

"That would be you," Hermione answered. Letting her hand move from behind Draco's neck, she ran it down his torso and finally stopped once she was fondling the large bulge in the blond's trousers.

Draco groaned as Hermione's hand rubbed at him through his trousers. Pulling her hand away, he once again pressed his lips against hers. Instead of returning her hand to Draco's neck, Hermione ran it back up his torso. When he moaned again, Hermione took full advantage and thrust her tongue into his mouth. Almost immediately Draco reciprocated and a battle for dominance was fought, with Draco eventually winning and taking full control of the kiss.

"You're wearing too many clothes," Hermione panted, pulling away from Draco.

"I could say the same to you," Draco responded. Dipping his head he began nibbling and sucking on Hermione's neck, as his hands wandered down her back. While his left hand remained on her backside, his right trailed down a bit further and wandered under the hem of her short dress.

"It would be easier if the dress was taken off," Hermione murmured as Draco's hand slowly crawled up her leg.

"Have a bit of patience, Hermione," Draco chuckled against her neck.

"I'm not a patient person," Hermione lied. She was actually a very patient person, you just had to look at her long term plan to ruin Ginny's life to see that, but with Draco all she wanted was for them to be naked and enjoying their evening together.

Draco chuckled again in response, but his left hand travelled back up Hermione's back and found the zipper on her dress. Opening the zipper didn't immediately cause the dress to fall down and Hermione had to move away from Draco for a minute to tug the tight material down her body. As she did so she kicked off her heels, leaving her in just her underwear. Hermione stood and let Draco admire her for a minute, before reaching behind her to undo her bra.

"Not so quick," Draco called, pulling her hands back in front of her. "I'll remove your underwear myself."

Hermione rolled her eyes, but didn't argue. Instead she stepped forward and began unfastening Draco's shirt. While Hermione undid Draco's shirt and pushed the dark material off his shoulders, Draco was working on unfastening his trousers and removing his shoes. In under a minute Draco was also standing in just his underwear, which consisted of a pair of black boxers that did little to hide how well-endowed the former Slytherin was.

"Like what you see?" Draco teased as Hermione openly ogled him.

"I don't know yet," Hermione answered, looking up into Draco's smirking face. "You're hiding the best part."

Draco grinned at Hermione, before quickly pulling his boxers down and kicking them away. "Well?" He asked as Hermione's attention once again travelled back down his body.

"Not bad I suppose," Hermione replied, trying not to let on just how aroused she was at the sight of a completely naked Draco Malfoy. The man had a body built for sin and Hermione couldn't wait to get to grips with it.

"Your turn now," Draco said.

"I thought you wanted to do the honours," Hermione retorted.

"I've decided a strip tease might be more entertaining," Draco replied.

Walking over to the bed he sat down on the edge and waited for Hermione to finish undressing. As he did so he picked up his wand, and cast a contraceptive charm on them, before tossing the wooden stick onto the floor.

Hermione moved so she was standing a few feet in front of Draco, before slowly reaching behind her and unhooking her bra. A quick flick of her wrist sent the black material flying across the room, exposing her to Draco's eyes. While Draco was ogling her breasts, Hermione hooked her fingers in the waistband of her knickers. Slowly she began peeling them away from her body, watching Draco as his eyes lowered themselves to the bottom half of her body. Once her underwear was fully gone, Hermione walked the couple of steps to the bed and stopped in front of Draco.

Wordlessly the pair shared a heated kiss, as their hands explored the newly exposed places on the other one's body. When they finally came up for air, Draco moved back on the bed and Hermione crawled on after him. Hermione straddled Draco's hips and taking hold of his manhood she sunk down on the throbbing member. The action produced moans of satisfaction from the pair, and they remained still for a minute, just enjoying the feeling of being together.

"You're going to have to move, Hermione," Draco moaned through gritted teeth. It was taking every ounce of his self-control not to flip them over and take control of the situation, but before he did that he really wanted to see Hermione moving atop of him.

"As you wish," Hermione grinned down at Draco as she braced herself against his shoulders.

Slowly Hermione rose back up, before slamming back down. Draco moaned again as his hands fell to Hermione's hips to help her ride him. As the pair found their rhythm, Draco's eyes were riveted to where they were joined together, watching Hermione moving up and down on him was incredibly arousing. As they carried on moving together their movements got a bit more frenetic. When Draco suddenly moved so he was sitting up slightly, Hermione cried out at the change of angle.

"God, Draco."

"Hermione," Draco moaned, surging forward and capturing her lips in a heated exchange.

As they were kissing, his right hand slipped from her hip and made its way to where they were joined. Hermione moaned loudly when his fingers brushed against her sensitive clitoris. Hermione's moans spurred Draco on and his fingers began circling her sensitive nub, as their movements became more and more frantic.

"Draco!" Hermione screamed, as a flick of his thumb had her falling apart above him.

Draco shut his eyes and willed himself to remain in control as Hermione convulsed around him. As Hermione's orgasm began to fade, he trusted himself enough to move. In one fluid motion he had Hermione on her back, while he hovered over her. Hermione looked up at him, her body still flushed from her orgasm.

"I can't," She protested.

"Yes, you can," Draco replied, dipping his head and connecting their lips in a slow, sensual kiss.

As they kissed Draco's hands ghosted over her body, concentrating on her breasts. Hermione was soon arching into his touch and once more her body was crying out for him. Draco smirked knowingly down at Hermione, but she pulled him into another kiss to stop him from opening his mouth and saying something annoying. As they were kissing, Draco rolled his hips against Hermione, creating a burning fire within them. Within seconds their kisses were hot and heavy and their hands were clawing at each other.

As the fire between them ignited Draco began to move and within minutes the couple were moving together as though they'd done it many a time before. Draco set a relentless pace, thrusting hard and fast into Hermione, who easily matched him thrust for thrust.

"Oh god," Hermione cried, wrapping her legs around Draco's waist to pull him even deeper inside her.

"Damn it Hermione, I'm close," Draco grunted. Even though she'd already climaxed once, he wanted Hermione to reach her peak again.

"Me too," She gasped.

As Draco's thrusts began to become more erratic, Hermione's hand slipped in between them to help her along. The low moan that emerged from Draco when he saw what she was doing, was enough to push Hermione over the edge and with a loud cry her body once again began shuddering in pleasure. Hermione's climax broke Draco's restraint and as she clenched around him, he found his own shuddering release.

Hot, sweaty and totally spent the couple collapsed back onto the bed in a heap. They remained that way for several minutes, before Draco summoned his wand and cleaned them up. When he then settled back down in the large bed, Hermione realised he expected her to stay the night. Staying the night wasn't something she was planning on doing, but as he pulled her into his arms and placed a gentle kiss on her shoulder, Hermione found herself more than willing to remain where she was for the time being.

"That was amazing," Draco murmured sleepily. "We should do it again, sometime."

Hermione hummed a reply, as she lay in Draco's arms. She was rather perturbed by the contended feeling it produced in her, but she still couldn't force herself to get up and leave. Instead she remained curled up next to Draco as he drifted off into a deep sleep. Hermione watched the blond wizard for nearly half an hour, until she reluctantly dragged herself from the bed.

Walking over to the desk by the window she grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill and scribbled Draco a quick note, telling him she'd had fun and would see him around. Hermione then grabbed her clothes and began to get dressed. When she found her knickers, instead of putting them on she placed them with the note and left them on the pillow beside Draco. He could keep them as a memento of their night together.

After double checking she hadn't forgotten anything, Hermione took one last glance at a sleeping Draco before tiptoeing out of the room and quietly shutting the door behind her. She then returned to her own room, packed her bag, and headed down to the front desk to check out. Within the hour she was back home in London, while Draco slept soundly in Lisbon, totally unaware that Hermione had left him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN – Next chapter is from Draco's pov, and I'm sure it will answer a few questions people have. **


	5. Chapter 4

When Draco awoke he knew instantly that he was alone in bed, and before he even opened his eyes he knew Hermione wasn't even in the hotel room. When he opened his eyes, he just confirmed Hermione's absence. Sighing in disappointment, Draco sat up and spotted a note on the pillow beside him. Picking the note up, he smiled as he read that Hermione had enjoyed herself and would see him around. When he'd picked up the note Draco had spotted a scrap of black silk under the note and his grin grew even wider, when he realised they were Hermione's knickers.

Lying in the large bed, Draco replayed his night with Hermione. He knew he should feel guilty about what had happened with Hermione, but he didn't. He'd just cheated on his wife of only a few months, but yet the guilt refused to materialise. Instead for the first time in years, Draco felt alive. For the first time in years, he'd done something he wanted to do. For as long as Draco could remember he'd done what he'd been told to do and what was expected from him, but with Hermione he'd followed his instincts and finally done something for himself, something he wanted to do.

For years Draco had been the perfect son, doing what Lucius had expected of him, even if he didn't always agree with his father or what he thought. Then Voldemort came back and Draco's life took a darker turn. Instead of obeying his father, he'd been forced to do the bidding of The Dark Lord. For two years Draco had been bullied and threatened to do exactly as Voldemort wanted. Even Voldemort's downfall didn't release Draco from doing as other people wanted.

After the war he'd been pardoned from a lot of what had occurred during the war when the full extent of Voldemort's terror was revealed. He did however receive certain conditions to the pardon, one of which was he had to return to Hogwarts and retake his final year of schooling. Stuck back at Hogwarts, Draco had drifted into a relationship with Ginny Weasley and even marrying her had been an obligation. He certainly hadn't married the redhead because he loved her, he'd done it because it was the right thing to do and it was what everyone expected him to do.

Thoughts of Ginny brought Draco back to the present. As much as he would love to stay in bed, he had to get up. He had a final meeting that morning, then he was due to leave and go back home. As unappealing as returning home was Draco knew he had to do it, the family business was based in London and it wouldn't run itself.

Dragging himself out of bed, Draco showered and got dressed. He then ensured everything was packed for checkout later that afternoon, before leaving the hotel room. When he passed through reception, he decided to stop and enquire about Hermione. Since she'd shown up in the bar the previous evening he guessed she was staying at the hotel, although he did suspect she would have already checked out.

"Hi, I want to leave a message for my friend," Draco said to the receptionist. "I think she's staying here, but I'm not sure. Can you check?"

"Of course," The receptionist replied. "What's the name?"

"Hermione Granger."

The receptionist checked the details, before shaking her head. "Sorry we have no Hermione Granger staying here."

"Has she already checked out?" Draco inquired.

"There's been no-one of that name staying here," The receptionist replied.

"She must not have been staying here," Draco said, even though he didn't believe it for one second. For some reason it seemed as though Hermione had been using a false name. "Thank you anyway," He said to the receptionist, before turning around and carrying on to the dining room.

After breakfast Draco headed off to his meeting. The meeting took far longer than he'd expected, partly due to the extended lunch they'd taken, but all too soon Draco was back at the hotel checking out. With a resigned sigh, he stepped into the hotel's floo network and headed home to London.

It was late afternoon when Draco arrived back at the house he shared with Ginny and for a brief moment he thought he'd struck lucky and arrived home while his wife was out. A few minutes later his hope was crushed, as he heard footsteps on the stairs and Ginny appeared in the doorway to the front room.

"What are you doing back?" She asked in surprise.

"I live here," Draco retorted, unable to help the bite to his tone.

"I meant what are you doing back so early," Ginny said, ignoring her husband's tone of voice.

"I'm not early," Draco frowned. "I said I would be back today."

"No, you said tomorrow," Ginny argued. "You said you were going for four nights."

"No, I said four days," Draco said, shaking his head. As usual Ginny hadn't bothered to listen to him properly.

"Oh." Ginny looked at Draco in surprise, before shrugging her shoulder. "Well, I wasn't expecting you back tonight so I've made plans. I can cancel if you want."

"Don't bother," Draco told his wife. He suspected her offer to cancel was just to be polite and the look of relief on her face when he didn't accept the offer told him everything he needed to know. "I'll owl Blaise and see if he wants to meet up."

"Great," Ginny beamed widely at the thought of not having to stay home when she'd arranged to meet friends and go out for an evening of fun. "I'll go and finish getting ready."

Without another word, Ginny turned and went flying back upstairs. After his wife had left, Draco threw his bag onto the chair and headed for his study. He would take his bag upstairs and get sorted once Ginny had gone, it would be preferable then heading upstairs now and having to cope with her mindless gossip as she got ready to go out. When he arrived in his study, Draco scribbled a quick note to Blaise and gave it to his owl. Letting the bird out of the window, he poured himself a glass of water and settled down at his desk. As he waited for Ginny to leave he couldn't help but think back over their relationship and how they'd ended up together.

It had all started when Draco had been repeating his final year of school. After the war and everything that had happened practically the whole school was against him and almost no-one spoke to him. Ginny was one of the only people to speak to him, and in his loneliness Draco had welcomed her into his life. One thing had led to another and the pair were soon sleeping together. The sex wasn't particularly memorable, but Draco didn't want to alienate the only ally he had in Hogwarts so he didn't complain. For Draco the entire thing was just a way of getting through the year, before he could leave and finally do what he wanted to do.

Draco had intended on travelling for a while after he left school. However just before the end of the year Ginny had come to him in tears and told him she was pregnant. That of course changed everything and Draco knew he wasn't going anywhere. As much as he didn't relish the idea, he would have to remain in England and support Ginny and his child. It hadn't even crossed his mind to leave anyway and let Ginny cope with the baby alone. He knew his responsibilities, and wasn't going to run away from them.

Naturally his parents weren't thrilled by the news he'd gotten Ginny pregnant. Since the war they'd changed their views and way of life dramatically, but Ginny's identity was truly a personal issue. Far too much bad blood had passed between Lucius and Arthur for Lucius to be happy a Weasley was carrying his grandchild. Despite that Lucius was insistent that Draco had to do the right thing and marry Ginny, there was no way a Malfoy baby was being born out of wedlock. Ginny's family were just as disapproving of Draco, but they agreed with Lucius regarding the child being born out of wedlock and a wedding was hastily organised.

While Draco felt pushed into the marriage, Ginny was thrilled and set about ensuring it was the biggest wedding they could manage. She was also the one pushing for the quick wedding as she didn't want to walk down the aisle when she was hugely pregnant. As it was there was no hint of her pregnancy when they tied the knot at the end of August.

Draco had always felt pushed into the wedding, and he was left to rue the quickness of the thing when a month after they returned from honeymoon Ginny lost the baby. As sad as it was to lose the baby, Draco couldn't help but feel angry at the timing. If Ginny had lost the baby earlier they wouldn't have even gotten married or if they hadn't gotten married so quickly they would have been able to cancel the wedding. As it was Draco was now stuck with Ginny, unless he wanted to look like a callous bastard for leaving her just after she lost their baby. The baby's existence wasn't public knowledge but Draco knew the Weasleys hated him enough to make sure everyone would find out if he left Ginny so quickly after the miscarriage.

Draco had planned on biding his time, before talking to Ginny and convincing her they should split up. However his night with Hermione had made him wonder just how long he could wait before leaving her. If he had his way, Draco would leave Ginny now and if he was lucky he could find Hermione and see if they had a future together. Something told him they could be good together, but it was also clear from their brief time together that Hermione had closed herself off emotionally. The Hermione Granger he remembered from school would never have a one night stand.

Before he could dwell too much on Hermione, and her motives for sleeping with him, Draco was distracted by his owl returning. Attached to the owl was a note from Blaise, arranging to meet at his flat. Draco checked the time on the note with the actual time and found he had just over an hour to get ready. Hopefully Ginny would be nearly ready to leave, so he could get ready in peace.

After grabbing his bag, Draco made his way upstairs and encountered his wife leaving the bedroom. She was wearing a skin-tight dress, that ended just below her backside and her breasts were barely contained inside the material. Draco couldn't help but think she looked like a cheap tart compared to Hermione. While Hermione's dress had also been tight and had displayed her cleavage to the best of its advantage, it hadn't been obscenely short and she'd still looked classy.

"I'm off, Draco," Ginny said. "Have you heard from Blaise?"

"Yeah, I'm going to get changed then I'm heading round to his," Draco replied.

"Make sure you behave yourself," Ginny warned with a giggle.

"I always do," Draco retorted.

"I know," Ginny smiled happily. Giving Draco a quick peck on the cheek, she said goodbye and headed off downstairs.

Draco headed into the bedroom and throwing his bag into the corner he stripped off his clothes and headed into the bathroom. After a quick shower he changed into a casual t-shirt and trousers combination, before heading off to see Blaise. He was slightly early, but he knew he friend wouldn't mind.

Blaise, of course, didn't mind Draco showing up early, and the two wizards settled down to talk with a few beers. For a while Blaise filled Draco in on his colourful and varied love life. Blaise usually had a new girlfriend every few weeks, and at the minute he showed no desire to settle down. Blaise always claimed that when the right witch walked into his life, he would give up his playboy lifestyle and devote himself entirely to her. Most people thought it was all talk on Blaise's part, but Draco knew his friend meant every word he said. When Blaise found the right woman, he would be more than willing to settle down and commit.

"So how was your trip?" Blaise asked as they cracked open a second bottle of beer each. "Portugal, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Draco replied with a nod. "I got the business deal I went for. I did however do something else. Something I shouldn't have."

"What?"

"I slept with someone else," Draco admitted. He knew Blaise wouldn't judge him as he was his best friend, plus he knew the real reason Draco had married Ginny.

"Really?" Blaise questioned in surprise. Despite Draco not being in love with Ginny, he was still surprised his friend had actually cheated.

"Yes," Draco replied. "I know I shouldn't have, but I couldn't resist."

"Do you regret it?" Blaise asked.

Draco smiled as he pictured Hermione screaming his name as she climaxed. "No, not for one second."

"You have to tell me about her," Blaise said, looking at his friend in curiosity. It was the first time in a long time he'd seen Draco look so alive and happy. "Something tells me she wasn't just a one off. Will you be seeing her again?"

"I hope so," Draco said with a sigh. "But she ran off while I was sleeping. All she left was a note saying what a good time she'd had and her underwear."

"She left her underwear, nice," Blaise grinned. "So come on, tell me about her."

"It was Hermione," Draco told his friend.

"Granger?" Blaise's mouth dropped open in shock at his friends' revelation. "You shagged Hermione Granger?"

"Yep."

"Bloody hell," Blaise muttered, taking a large swig from his beer bottle. "What was she like?" He asked, once he'd began to get over the shock.

"Amazing," Draco smiled. "I've never experienced anything like it Blaise, we just clicked. It was the most amazing sex of my life."

"To be fair, you haven't got much to compare it too," Blaise chuckled. "One drunken night with Pansy to lose your virginity, then the war came along and distracted you, then you hooked up with Ginny. That's not a lot of comparison material."

"Pansy and I slept together more than once, and apart from that first time when we were drunk, it was pretty good," Draco argued.

"But you still don't have a wealth of experience to compare Granger with."

"I don't need a boat load of comparisons to know the sex was bloody fantastic," Draco retorted.

"Okay, okay. I believe you that the sex was great. " Blaise backed off the topic, realising how touchy Draco was becoming. "So how exactly did you hook up with Granger? I thought she'd vanished after the war."

"We just ran into each other in the bar of the hotel," Draco answered. "We got talking, and our usual spark was there, and we ended up in bed."

"Back up, what spark?" Blaise questioned with a frown.

"I can't really explain, it's just always been there between us, it's like this simmering tension. When I was younger I figured it was because we hated each other, but as I got older I realised it was attraction."

"Are you telling me you had a thing for Granger back in school?" Blaise asked.

"A little bit," Draco admitted with a shrug. "I may have admitted I was attracted to her, but I never would have done anything. In fact most of the time I pretended the attraction wasn't there. With things the way they were back in school, I never would have even considered acting on the attraction."

"But when you ran into her, you just couldn't resist," Blaise stated.

"Exactly," Draco nodded. "Things have changed since the war, and I guess I felt I could finally act on the attraction."

"Even though you're a married man and really shouldn't be shagging other witches," Blaise chuckled.

"Even that wasn't enough to stop me," Draco said. Even confessing to Blaise failed to produce any guilt over his infidelity and he couldn't help but think about what a terrible husband he was. He may not love Ginny, but she deserved better than him.

"So where's she being all this time?" Blaise asked. "Is she back or what?"

"I have no idea, we didn't talk about anything like that," Draco admitted.

"Why did she even leave in the first place?" Blaise wondered.

"I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it had something to do with Weasley's death," Draco answered. "I asked Ginny about her once, but she got upset and began to cry."

"And let's guess, you soothed her by taking her to bed," Blaise remarked, rolling his eyes.

"You know I don't do well with emotions, especially not girls crying over their dead brother," Draco retorted. "Anyway, from what little Ginny did say, I got the impression Hermione had left after a falling out. Weasley's name was mentioned, but given what happened I didn't like to push."

"What about after that?" Blaise questioned. "Have you never spoke about her since then?"

"No," Draco shook his head. "She's clearly not in touch with Ginny or her family anymore, and I had no reason to ask about her. To be honest I hadn't thought much about her until last night when we ran into each other. Now however, I can't get her off my mind."

"You could always ask Ginny about her," Blaise suggested.

"I don't think so," Draco snorted. "How exactly would I explain my sudden interest in Hermione? I may not love Ginny, but I don't want to hurt her. When the time's right we can end the marriage and she need never know about Hermione."

"Unless of course you leave Ginny for Hermione," Blaise pointed out. "If that happens, Ginny will find out what happened."

Draco sighed as he stared morosely at his beer. "It was one night Blaise. Who knows if I'll even see her again."


	6. Chapter 5

After her first encounter with Draco, Hermione had to stop herself from approaching the blond at the first opportunity she got. The entire thing had been far more pleasurable than Hermione had anticipated, but what was more disconcerting was how comfortable she felt with him. Before Portugal she hadn't seen him since the war, but it was as though all their old animosity had never existed. Witnessing them interact that evening, no-one would ever think the pair had ever been anything other than close.

Just over a week after Portugal, Hermione had the opportunity to approach Draco again. He was in Germany for a few days, and as usual it didn't look as though Ginny was accompanying him. Despite the temptation to head to Germany, Hermione resisted and took some time to refocus herself. She wasn't out to have a good time, she was out to destroy Ginny's life. Her affair with Draco was just the first step to reaching her goal, and Hermione needed to remind herself of that and stay focused. What she was doing was purely for revenge, the pleasure she experienced while with Draco was just a bonus.

Once she was sure her mind was refocused on the bigger picture, Hermione looked into when she could next run into Draco. An examination of his diary revealed the blond would be in Italy, a little over three weeks after their Portuguese encounter. Hermione was satisfied the timing was right for their next encounter, it wasn't too soon after their last meeting and it wasn't so long that Draco would have forgotten their previous encounter.

With a location set, Hermione set about arranging an accidental meeting. Draco was staying in a villa connected with a luxury hotel complex, so Hermione booked into one of the hotel's rooms. Like before she used a false name and spent a few days studying Draco's movements. Because he was staying in one of the hotel's villas his movements were harder to predict, but Hermione soon spotted he liked to go for a run along the beach.

The day before Draco was due to depart, Hermione watched from her hotel room window as the blond set off for his daily jog. Grabbing her bag, she quickly hurried out of her room and headed down to the private beach that belonged to the hotel. Hermione spread her towel across the golden sand, and whipping off her sundress she settled down in just her tiny sapphire bikini. For a final touch, Hermione slipped a pair of oversized sunglasses on her face. The glasses ensured she could watch for Draco coming back, while pretending not to notice him.

Hermione was lying on the beach for nearly an hour, before she spotted the blond figure she was waiting for in the distance. Smirking to herself she settled back on her towel and waited until Draco spotted her. When Draco did approach her, Hermione worried that he hadn't seen her as he was almost past her before he paused. Hermione watched as he stopped and turned back around to get a good look at her.

"Hermione?" He questioned, slight hesitance evident in his voice.

"Draco," Hermione smiled, raising her sunglasses and looking up at the blond. "What a surprise. What are you doing here?"

"Business trip," Draco answered. "How about you?"

"I told you before, I'm travelling," Hermione answered.

"And yet you keep ending up in the same place as me," Draco retorted.

"Merely coincidence," Hermione shrugged as she sat up.

"Once is a coincidence, twice I'm not so sure," Draco replied. "If I didn't know any better I would think you were stalking me."

Hermione laughed as she stood up and shook her head. "And how would I know where to find you?" She asked. "I'm not a mind reader, Draco. There's no possible way for me to know where you'll be at any given time."

"That's true," Draco agreed. "I guess I'm just a lucky man to have such a beautiful witch showing up wherever I am."

"If you're expecting a beautiful witch to show up I better leave," Hermione said.

"I meant you, and you know I did," Draco said softly.

"And how could I possibly know that?" Hermione asked, tilting her head to one side as she looked at Draco with wide eyes. "For most of the time we've known each other, you thought I was ugly."

"I never thought you were ugly," Draco insisted, moving closer to Hermione. "I always thought you were really pretty, but I could never admit that. My father would have killed me for fancying a muggleborn."

"Would he not now?" Hermione questioned.

"Times have changed and my father is no longer the man he once was," Draco replied. "I'm pretty sure he wouldn't kill me for fancying you, or for shagging you."

"And what about for cheating on your wife? Would he kill you for that?"

Hermione had only brought up Ginny to try and get a better idea of what Draco felt for her. Their marriage was still a puzzle to her, and while she wanted to destroy it she was curious as to why Draco had married her in the first place. While Draco hadn't liked muggleborns when he was younger, he'd been equally - if not more so, dismissive of Weasleys.

"You know I'm married?" Draco's eyes widened in surprise when Hermione mentioned his wife.

"Yes," Hermione nodded. "Even though you don't wear a ring, why is that by the way?"

"I just don't," Draco answered with a shrug. The ring he'd used for the ceremony was at home and he only ever wore it when he and Ginny appeared at a public event, and even that was to keep up appearances. "How did you know I was married?"

"I read the papers," Hermione shrugged.

"And yet you still slept with me," Draco mused. He was honestly shocked that Hermione was aware of his marriage, he'd assumed she had no idea he was married.

"I don't remember much sleeping happening," Hermione smirked. "As I recall we were far too busy for sleep."

"You could have slept, but as I recall you snuck out without saying goodbye," Draco retorted.

"I left you a note, and a little present. Did you not like the present?" Hermione pouted.

"I would have preferred to wake up next to you," Draco replied, without thinking. Almost as soon as the words left his mouth he regretted them as they betrayed that their one night together meant more to him than just sex.

"That's not going to happen," Hermione declared, shaking her head ruefully. "I won't spend the entire night with you, I don't do that."

"Do you make a habit of sleeping with married men?" Draco asked, a bit more sharply than he'd intended.

"You'll be my first," Hermione answered honestly. "I don't make a habit of spending the night with anyone, not anymore."

Draco could hear the hurt in Hermione's voice and knew someone at some time had hurt her pretty badly. He'd heard rumours that she'd been involved with Harry during the war, but since Ginny never mentioned Hermione and he wasn't close to any of the other Weasleys or Harry, he didn't know if the rumours were true. Of course even if they were true, he didn't know if it was Harry who had hurt her. For all he knew she could have gotten her heart broken sometime after she disappeared.

"Since you said you won't spend the night, does that mean you're up for a repeat of last time?" Draco checked. It was clear the moment they began talking that sex was on the agenda, but he wanted to be sure he hadn't offended Hermione and caused her to change her mind.

"Most definitely," Hermione grinned. "Why don't we meet up in the bar later on?"

"Better yet, why don't you just come back with me to my villa?" Draco offered. "Why waste time messing around in the bar. We can have a drink at the villa."

"Okay, I'll come," Hermione answered as she grabbed her bag.

"I know you will, repeatedly," Draco smirked.

Hermione laughed at Draco's cockiness. "Do you think you can improve on twice in one night?"

"I know I can," Draco replied cockily as they began walking across the golden sand towards his villa.

"Promises, promises," Hermione muttered with a smile. She had no doubt Draco could live up to his boast, and she was looking forward to every second of it.

When the pair arrived at the villa, Draco headed off for a quick shower, leaving Hermione to have a good look around. Before doing anything, Hermione pulled her sundress out of her bag and slipped it back on, she then cast a contraceptive charm that would last twenty four hours on herself, before setting off to explore the villa. As she expected the entire place was immaculate and oozed luxury, by her estimation it would cost a pretty penny just to occupy the place for a handful of nights.

Hermione was standing in front of a full length window, enjoying the view of the sea, when Draco returned to the room. Looking over her shoulder, Hermione found he was now dressed in a pair of black trousers and a pale grey shirt. He wasn't wearing any socks or shoes, and Hermione was guessing he also wasn't wearing underwear.

"You're dressed," Draco pouted, coming up beside Hermione.

"I've only slipped my dress back on, it can come back off easy enough," Hermione shrugged.

"Let's do that now, shall we," Draco grinned. Moving behind Hermione, he slipped the thin straps of her dress down her shoulders and let the material pool around her feet. "Much better," He said, dropping a kiss to Hermione's shoulder blade.

Hermione closed her eyes and leant back against Draco, as his lips trailed over her skin and his hands started to caress her exposed flesh. It was only when Draco's fingers started tugging on the strings of her bikini top that she remembered they were in front of the window, and there were people out on the beach.

"Whoa," She cried, slapping Draco's hands away from her. "Not here."

"Why not?" Draco questioned, trailing his hands down her sides to untie her bottoms. "I thought this was why you came back to the villa."

"It was, but I'm not undressing in front of the window," Hermione argued.

"It tinted so no-one can see in," Draco said. "I promise you, no-one but me can see you."

"Even so, I would prefer to move," Hermione said.

"As you wish," Draco replied. Wrapping his arm tightly around Hermione's waist he pulled his wand from his pocket and apparated them to the bedroom.

"Now this is more like it," Hermione grinned, looking around the room in appreciation. Like the ground floor of the villa it was beautifully decorated and looked expensive and luxurious.

"Now, I believe I have a point to prove," Draco remarked, leading Hermione over to the bed.

"Ah, yes," Hermione smiled, perching on the end of the bed. "I believe you promised me more than two orgasms tonight."

"Your wish is my command," Draco grinned at Hermione while he pulled off his shirt and trousers. Just as Hermione suspected, he wasn't wearing any underwear.

"Now I feel overdressed," Hermione pouted.

"Allow me," Draco offered.

Draco moved so he was standing directly in front of Hermione. Reaching behind her, he expertly untied her bikini top and threw the material over his shoulder. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he gently ran them down her body, making sure to pay extra attention to her breasts and making her nipples harden under his touch. When his hands finally reached the ties of her bottoms, he undid them and pulled the material out from underneath his lover.

"Better?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow at the naked witch.

"I'm getting there," Hermione replied. Scooting back on the bed, she settled herself against the pillows and beckoned for Draco to join her. "Now it's time for you to prove your point."

"You still don't think I can do it, do you?" Draco laughed as he crawled onto the bed and settled down beside Hermione.

"I'm starting to think you're all talk and no action," Hermione retorted.

"I'll show you action," Draco vowed, capturing Hermione's lips in a brutal kiss.

Hermione melted into the kiss, letting Draco have full control. As they kissed his hands started wandering across her body. His left hand stopped at her breasts, alternating its attention between the two mounds. Meanwhile his right hand trailed down her body, before delving in between her legs.

Hermione moaned loudly as Draco's fingers expertly teased her, and she willingly settled back on the bed as he moved to hover over her. After a lingering kiss, Draco grinned wickedly at Hermione, before descending down her body. Closing her eyes, Hermione revelled in the sensations as Draco made sure to caress and touch every inch of her exposed flesh as he made her way to her waiting centre.

When Draco's lips finally descended on her lower area, Hermione threaded her fingers through his soft, blond hair. Using her hand, she urged him on as he licked and kissed at her wet heat. As Draco continued to pleasure her, Hermione's moans turned to cries of pleasure and pleas for more. Draco happily obliged, and continued to use his mouth on Hermione, until she was gripping tightly onto his hair and screaming his name in ecstasy.

"That's one," He stated cockily as he returned to his position beside a recovering Hermione.

"It sure was," Hermione mumbled. She'd never had such a good orgasm from oral sex, and she was still recovering from it.

"Are you ready for two and three?" Draco asked, trailing his fingers over Hermione's breasts and circling her nipples.

"If you're up for it," Hermione responded with a cheeky grin.

"I'm up for it," Draco smirked back at Hermione. Grabbing hold of her hand, he led it down in between their bodies, so she could feel just how up for it he was.

"Yes, you are," Hermione said as she took hold of Draco's hard erection and ran her hand up and down his length a few times.

Removing Hermione's hand, Draco pinned her beneath him as he hovered over her. Bending his head, he gave her a long, languid kiss as he slowly entered her. Once he was fully sheathed in her warm heat, he stilled for several moments, before setting a slow and steady pace to his thrusts. The pace Draco was moving at might not have been as frantic as their coupling in Portugal, but with every stroke he hit all the right spots and Hermione's second orgasm of the night was soon building.

Draco was completely in control as he slowly built up Hermione's pleasure, and when she climaxed around him, he was able to ride out her orgasm without reaching his own peak. Hermione had barely recovered from her orgasm when Draco pulled out of her and flipped her over onto her front. Encouraging her up onto her hands and knees, he then proceeded to slam back into her with a lot more force than he had been doing. Hermione was instantly pressing back against Draco, meeting him thrust for thrust as things began to get a bit more heated. The heat continued to rise between them for a while, as they continued to move perfectly in sync with one another.

Just like he'd promised Draco delivered a third orgasm for Hermione, and this time he reached his own completion as well. Together the couple collapsed back onto the bed, and Hermione rolled over so she was on her back. Draco was also lying on his back and the couple lay in silence as they recovered from their exertions.

"Well, you did it," Hermione said, finally breaking the silence.

"Yeah," Draco grinned. "Next time I can try for four."

"Who says there's going to be a next time?" Hermione chuckled. "We might never see each other again."

"There'll be a next time," Draco stated confidently. "Either you'll find me, or I'll find you. Either way we'll be together again."

"Will we now?" Hermione smiled, rolling onto her side so she could see Draco.

"Yes, we will," Draco said, also rolling over so the pair were lying facing each other. "You're leaving now, aren't you?" He asked with a sigh as Hermione sat up.

"Yes," Hermione nodded. There was nothing she would like more than to curl up next to Draco and go to sleep, but it wasn't going to happen. Leaning over she gave Draco a deep kiss. "Until next time," She whispered.

Jumping out of bed, she put her bikini top back on and summoned her sundress. Once she had her dress on, she picked up her bikini bottoms and flung them towards Draco.

"Another gift?" Draco asked, catching the sapphire material in his right hand.

"Another gift," Hermione confirmed.

Throwing Draco one last smile, Hermione turned and headed out of the bedroom. A minute later Draco heard the sound of apparition, signalling Hermione had left the villa. At least this time she hadn't snuck out while he was sleeping, but Draco was determined that next time he would get her to stay longer. For some reason he desperately wanted to wake up next to Hermione, and Draco vowed to get exactly what he wanted.


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N – We've got a bit of a time skip here. I didn't want to describe every meeting between Draco and Hermione as it would become repetitive, so I've jumped forward a few months.**

* * *

><p>As he watched Ginny get ready to go out for the evening, Draco couldn't help but feel guilty about his extra marital affair. Even though he didn't love Ginny, he felt bad that he'd been cheating on her for six months and they'd barely been married for nine months. However, his guilt wasn't quite enough to prompt him to end his affair with Hermione. Instead it just made him more determined to end his marriage.<p>

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Ginny checked, bringing Draco out of his thoughts.

"It's alright, you go and enjoy yourself," Draco answered. "Besides, we both know Potter would prefer it if I wasn't there."

Ginny was going out with Harry and most her family to celebrate a promotion at work for Harry. Draco however had declined to attend the night out, as he knew he would just be an unwelcome intruder. Apart from the twins, none of the other Weasleys made any sort of effort with him and he always felt uncomfortable in their presence. Of course he also knew that their thoughts ran in pretty much the same way as his did, that if Ginny had miscarried before the wedding that it wouldn't have happened.

"I could always skip the meal and stay here with you," Ginny suggested, smiling at her husband.

Draco had to fight the grimace that threatened to show on his face at Ginny's suggestion. For the last few months, Draco had been trying to broach the subject of ending their marriage to Ginny, but every time he got started she would start crying over the lost baby and he would feel so guilty that he backed down and didn't carry on with the conversation. However, in the last six weeks or so she'd also started talking about trying for another baby and she was always trying to get him into bed. The few times he hadn't been able to avoid taking his wife to bed, Draco had secretly cast a contraceptive charm. He wanted out of their marriage so the last thing he was going to do was get her pregnant again.

"You go and celebrate," Draco insisted. "I've got some work I've got to get done."

Before Ginny had a chance to protest, Draco gave her a quick peck on the cheek before leaving the bedroom and heading into his study. Half an hour later, Ginny poked her head in the room and said goodbye, before she headed off for the evening. Once his wife was gone, Draco left the safety of his study and settled in the front room with a large glass of firewhisky.

Immediately his thoughts turned to Hermione, and what was happening between them. It had now been six months since their first encounter, and while some things remained the same there were some things that was very different about their encounters. While the sex was always spectacular, Draco knew there was more to their meetings than that. In fact he was fairly sure he was falling in love with Hermione.

Hermione was still the one who just showed up when he was travelling, and so far she refused to be drawn on how she knew where to find him. She had however given up on her pretence that she was just travelling and it was pure coincidence they had ran into each other, she would at least now admit she was searching him out deliberately.

She was also still avoiding spending the entire night with Draco, much to his frustration. However, she was starting to spend longer with him and he was confident she was finding it tougher to just get up and leave. It was actually starting to become a habit that they would actually fall asleep together, but by the morning Hermione was always nowhere to be seen. The only sign she'd ever been there was her knickers, which she was still leaving as souvenirs.

The couple were also talking more in their encounters. While the first few encounters had been a bit of flirting, followed by hot sex, it now often took them longer to fall into bed. A couple of times they'd even shared a meal together before falling into bed. Even after sex, it was now pretty common for them to lie talking for hours. The only problem was Hermione wouldn't talk about anything too personal. She was quite happy to talk about literature, what was going on in the wizarding world, even Draco's life and work as well as revealing bits and pieces about herself, but anything about her life at the moment was off limits. Draco could get her to talk about what she was interested in, but the few times Draco had tried bringing up something about what she was up to at the moment she would either change the subject or distract him with more pleasurable activities.

Of course, Draco himself rarely offered up anything too personal in their meetings. Apart from the one mention of Ginny, there was never any reference to the fact he was married. Like Hermione he would talk about his interests and hobbies, but he never spoke about his growing feelings for the brunette witch.

As he was thinking, Draco decided it was time to make some changes in his life. No matter what happened with Hermione, he had to leave Ginny. Their marriage was a mistake and he suspected that deep down Ginny herself knew their marriage was doomed. However, he did want to see if his relationship with Hermione was just an affair based on sex, or if there was something deeper between them. Draco was convinced there was a genuine connection between him and Hermione, he just had to try and broach the subject with Hermione.

Draco was wondering about maybe talking to Hermione the next time they met when the doorbell jolted him back to reality. When he went to answer the door, he was pleasantly surprised to find Blaise standing on the doorstep.

"Hey Blaise," Draco greeted, letting his friend into the house.

"Is Ginny here?" Blaise asked, glancing around cautiously.

"She's out with Potter and her family," Draco replied, chuckling when he saw Blaise's relieved reaction to the fact Ginny wasn't around. It was very clear that Blaise disliked Ginny, and he wasn't the best at hiding his feelings towards the redheaded witch.

"Excellent. That means we can have a drink and a catch up," Blaise grinned. Between Draco's constant travelling, and his own travelling the two friends hadn't spent too much time together in the last few weeks.

Draco poured himself a second firewhisky, and one for Blaise. Handing the drink to his friend, Draco settled back down in his seat as the two friends began catching up. For a while they spoke about work, and Blaise's eventful love life, before Blaise brought up the topic of Draco's affair.

"Are you still shagging Granger?" He asked conversationally. He knew full well Draco was still having an affair with the former Gryffindor, as if it had ended his friend would have mentioned it.

"It's more than just shagging. I think I love her," Draco admitted.

Blaise smirked knowingly at his friend's confession. He'd long suspected that Draco had deep feelings for Hermione, but so far the blond hadn't admitted such a thing. Now however, it would appear his friend was finally facing up to his feelings.

"And what exactly are you going to do about it?" Blaise questioned. "In case you've forgotten, you're married."

"How could I forget," Draco muttered.

"So, what are you going to do?" Blaise repeated. He was hoping now Draco had admitted his feelings that he would do something about them, the last thing he wanted was for his friend to be stuck in a loveless marriage for the rest of his life.

"I'm leaving Ginny, I've already decided that," Draco answered. "But first, I want to really talk to Hermione. I need to know where I stand with her, and if we have a chance of some sort of future together."

"When are you seeing her again?" Blaise asked.

"We never make plans, but I'm in France at the end of next week, chances are Hermione will show up there," Draco answered. For the last couple of months, Hermione had shown up on every single one of his overseas business trips, so it would be more of a surprise if he didn't see her. "But I'm not going to talk to her there, I need to really get her alone. I was thinking of arranging to meet the following week and whisking her away to one of the Malfoy properties. That way she can't walk out on me."

"You're planning on kidnapping Granger, you're brave," Blaise snorted.

"I'm not kidnapping her, I'm just taking her somewhere we can talk," Draco objected.

"You're taking her somewhere she can't leave on her own, that's a risky move," Blaise warned. "She might very well hex you into small pieces."

"That's a risk I'm going to have to take," Draco shrugged. "We need to talk, and we need to be able to do it in private. I don't want her running off before I have a proper chance to talk to her."

"It sounds risky to me, but good luck," Blaise said to his friend. "I hope everything goes as you want."

"So do I," Draco replied quietly.

**xXx**

Hermione sat in her hotel room in France, trying to get her head together. Things had spiralled completely out of control over the last six months, and she had no idea how to get her plans back on track. Worse still she had no idea if she even wanted to carry on with her plan for vengeance against Ginny. She still wanted Ginny to suffer for everything she'd done, but Hermione didn't want to hurt Draco as the blond was rapidly becoming the most important person in her life.

What had started out as an affair aimed to hurt Ginny had blossomed into something so much more. Hermione hadn't for one minute considered that she would come to actually like Draco, and she certainly hadn't thought she would begin to fall in love with him. After what had happened with Harry, Hermione had hardened her heart and vowed to never let anyone that close to her again, but somehow Draco had crept under her defences and she found herself growing more enamoured by him with every meeting.

Her feelings for Draco however were clouding her vengeance against Ginny. Her plan was supposed to have been complete months ago, but she just kept putting off arranging for Ginny to catch them. Instead she'd began to look forward to her encounters with Draco and for the last few months they were pretty much all she lived for. Hermione had even tried looking for another way to get revenge on Ginny, but she'd quickly came to the conclusion that the redhead's life was pretty empty. She was very much a typical rich, trophy wife who had no career or real life of her own. Apart from Draco, Hermione couldn't think of any other way to get back at Ginny. The only other solution she'd considered was writing to the Weasleys and including her memories of the day of Ron's death, but more than likely Ginny could worm her way out of things.

Hermione knew she would have to make a decision about her plans soon. Her savings were running out, and in a few months she wouldn't be able to continue on as she had been. She would have to get her own life back on track sooner or later and settle down and get a job. The only problem was Hermione didn't want to lose Draco, but she also wasn't ready to give up on her vengeance against Ginny. Now all she had to decide was if there was a way to get both, could she find a way to hurt Ginny and keep Draco?

After a lot of soul searching, Hermione decided that the only way to even stand a chance of not losing Draco was to tell him the truth. The very idea of confessing her plan, was terrifying as she knew Draco could very easily walk away from her without a second thought. Not that she could really blame him if that's what he did do. She had after all being lying to him from the beginning and he had every right to be hurt and angry at her.

With the decision to tell Draco the truth made, Hermione got herself ready. As usual she'd checked into the same hotel as Draco using an alias, and as usual she'd waited until his final night to approach him. Leaving him was getting harder with each encounter and Hermione knew that if she stayed the night with him even once it would be an even bigger struggle to keep her distance from him. Despite her growing attachment to the blond, she'd successfully managed to keep an emotional distance between them but it was getting harder to do with every meeting. She already knew that when she told him the truth if he walked away from her that she would be devastated, but it was a risk she needed to take.

Taking a final look in the mirror, Hermione left her hotel room and headed down to the bar. As expected Draco was sitting at one of the tables nursing a drink. Quickly grabbing a drink of her own, Hermione sauntered over to her lover and slid into the seat opposite him.

"Fancy seeing you here," Draco drawled, raising an eyebrow at Hermione.

"What can I say, I have a sixth sense about where to find you," Hermione replied with a smile.

"Or a source," Draco retorted. He'd been thinking a lot about how Hermione always knew where to find him, and he'd come to the conclusion that she was getting information from someone in his office.

"What are you suggesting?" Hermione asked.

"I'm suggesting you've got someone feeding you information," Draco answered. "Someone from my office is telling you where to find me."

"I promise I'm not getting the information from someone in your office," Hermione promised. As part of telling Draco everything she would tell him how she knew where to find him, she didn't want anyone getting into trouble on her account.

"But you are getting your information from somewhere," Draco pressed.

"Yes I am," Hermione admitted.

"Are you going to tell me where?" Draco questioned.

"Soon," Hermione vowed. "I promise, I'll tell you everything you want to know soon."

Draco nodded, seemingly satisfied with Hermione's answer. As the conversation drifted into mundane chit chat, a member of the hotel staff entered the bar and approached the couple.

"Mr Malfoy, I have a message for you," He said, handing Draco a piece of parchment.

Draco thanked the young wizard, and opened up the parchment. There was actually nothing written on the parchment as the whole thing had been a ruse Draco had paid the young wizard from reception to participate in. This was how Draco was going to ensure he got Hermione alone for the weekend on one of the Malfoys private properties.

"It's from father, there's some sort of emergency at work," Draco told Hermione as he refolded the parchment and slipped it into his jacket pocket. "I'm afraid I'll have to go."

"Now?" Hermione's disappointment was evident on her face and it took all of Draco's willpower not to cave and stay with her.

"I'm afraid so," Draco said. "Since we've been interrupted tonight, how would you feel about meeting up next weekend? I've got an afternoon meeting in Paris, I can easily stop over for the night."

"I'd like that," Hermione smiled. While they'd never actually arranged to meet up she was more than happy with the plan as she needed to get the truth off her chest as soon as possible.

After arranging which hotel to meet in, Draco gave Hermione a quick kiss before leaving the bar and heading up to his room. While his ruse had gotten him a meeting with Hermione the following weekend, it would mean he would have to leave France tonight, but he could always go to Blaise's rather than going home. The important thing was that the first part of the plan had worked perfectly, now all he needed to do was get Hermione alone and hope she didn't hex him before he got a chance to admit his feelings to her.


	8. Chapter 7

It was mid-afternoon when Hermione sauntered into the Paris hotel she'd arranged to meet Draco at. Considering the change of circumstances of their meeting, when Hermione checked in she did so under her real name. She saw no point in hiding away since Draco knew she would be here anyway.

"There you go Miss Granger," The receptionist smiled warmly as she handed Hermione the key to her room. "Don't hesitant to let us know if you need anything."

Hermione thanked the receptionist, before heading towards the lifts. She had no idea when Draco would be arriving, so she figured she could get ready and head down to the bar and wait for her lover there. Arriving at her room, Hermione let herself in using the key and got the shock of her life when she entered the room and found Draco standing in the middle of the room. His overnight bag was sitting unopened beside his feet and he didn't look the slightest bit surprised to see her enter the room.

"What are you doing in my room?" Hermione questioned, dropping her bag onto the bed.

"Technically you're in my room," Draco smirked. "I paid the receptionist to give you a key to my room, rather than give you a room of your own."

"And what would have happened if I hadn't used my real name?" Hermione questioned. She knew Draco was aware that she used aliases when they met up, as he'd mentioned her not being registered as a guest at hotel's before.

"That's why I also gave her a very detailed description of you," Draco replied.

"How did you describe me?" Hermione asked in curiosity.

"Now you're just fishing for compliments," Draco chuckled.

"How do I know your description was a compliment?" Hermione retorted. "For all I know, you could have said all sorts of nasty things about how I look."

"Why would I do that?" Draco questioned seriously as he closed the small gap between them. "Why would I insult the looks of the very beautiful witch I'm sleeping with?"

"You didn't always think I was beautiful," Hermione murmured quietly. Even though he'd once told her he'd always thought she was pretty, Hermione still thought he'd just been flattering her to make getting her into bed easier. "Once upon a time you thought I was a bushy haired, buck toothed, know-it-all mudblood."

Draco grimaced as the old insult he'd so carelessly hurled at Hermione in the past fell from her lips. "Don't use the M word."

Hermione tilted her head as she watched Draco's reaction. "It bothers you," She stated. "The M word, really bothers you."

"It does," Draco nodded. "It disgusts me that I ever used that despicable word, and it kills me knowing I used it towards you. I know I've never said this, but I am sorry about school. I'm sorry I was such a horrid person and I'm especially sorry for everything I said and did to you."

"I know you're sorry," Hermione said, smiling gently at Draco, who now looked sad and lost in past memories.

"How?" Draco asked quietly. "I've never had the guts to actually tell you."

"If you weren't truly sorry, we wouldn't be standing here now," Hermione answered. "The fact we've been sleeping together for six months, tells me you've changed. The fact that we can talk and have fun together, also tells me that you don't think of me the same way as you did in school."

"I still should have apologised earlier," Draco insisted.

"It doesn't matter," Hermione replied. "But since you're being honest, can I ask you something?"

"Whatever you want."

"Ages ago, you said that you'd always thought I was pretty and you implied that you fancied me back in school. Was that true?" Hermione asked. "Don't worry if it wasn't, I won't hold it against you."

"It's partly true," Draco admitted. "I meant what I said, Father would have killed me if I'd fancied a muggleborn. That stopped me ever really thinking about you in that way. But I have to admit at the Yule Ball in fourth year, I was very aware of just how attractive you were."

Hermione smiled, pleased that Draco had been honest with her. It made much more sense that he'd briefly noticed what she looked like, while most of the time he'd let the fact she was a muggleborn stop him from ever really looking at her. In truth it had been the same for her. She could remember once in fifth year thinking about how good looking he was, but his natural hateful nature had stopped her from ever really appreciating just how hot he truly was.

"So now we've established we're in the same room, what are we going to do?" Hermione asked with a teasing smile.

"I actually have everything planned," Draco answered. "I just hope you're not going to be too mad."

"Why would I be mad?" Hermione asked warily.

Instead of answering, Draco threw Hermione a wicked smirk as he pulled out his wand. Before she had a chance to react, he'd summoned the two overnight bags and had wrapped one of his arms securely around Hermione's waist. Hermione opened her mouth to ask what was happening, but before she could speak she felt the familiar pull of apparition. When she landed, she pulled herself roughly out of Draco's grasp and glared at her lover.

"What the hell was that?" She demanded. "You've kidnapped me."

"I haven't kidnapped you," Draco answered patiently. "I've brought you to a private island, so we can spend the whole weekend together. I'm hoping we can have a serious talk."

"We could have talked in Paris," Hermione snapped as she grabbed her overnight bag from Draco's hand and pulled out her wand.

"I didn't want you to run away," Draco admitted.

"Tough, because that's exactly what I'm going to do now," Hermione retorted sharply. "Goodbye Draco."

Hermione concentrated on the hotel they'd just left and waved her wand determinedly, but nothing happened. After a few more attempts to try and leave, Hermione gave up. There were clearly wards preventing her from leaving, and she was just wasting her time to try and circumvent them.

"Only Malfoys can apparate to and from the island," Draco explained.

"And let's guess, you won't let me go until we've talked," Hermione huffed.

"Please Hermione, just let me say my piece," Draco pleaded.

"You know what, right at this second I don't want to talk to you," Hermione said.

Dropping her overnight bag onto the floor of the living room they were standing in, Hermione headed for the nearest door and made her way outside. As she took off for a walk, she was relieved that Draco didn't follow her. Until she calmed down it was better he stayed well away in case she said something she would later regret.

As she walked, Hermione soon discovered that the island was a small one. In the centre of the island, surrounded by a lush green lawns stood the villa she'd just exited, and around the villa was a beach and that was all the island consisted of. Setting off in one direction, Hermione slowly walked across the golden sand.

The further she walked the more she calmed down, and while she still wasn't happy about Draco snatching her, she could see his reasoning. So far over the course of their affair she'd refused to be drawn into a serious conversation, so she could see why he was fearful she might flee. He had no way of knowing that Hermione herself wanted to talk, and it was her that was worried that he would flee once he knew the truth.

It took Hermione a couple of hours to circumnavigate the island, and as she was approaching the stretch of beach in front of the villa where she'd set off from, she spotted Draco sitting on the beach staring out to sea. As she approached him, he didn't look up so Hermione wasn't sure if he wasn't aware of her presence or if he was just ignoring her. By the time she reached his side, Draco still hadn't moved so Hermione sat down beside him and turned her own head to watch the calm, blue waters lap against the golden beach.

"I'm sorry," Draco quietly offered after nearly five minutes of silence. "I just wanted to talk to you somewhere you wouldn't run off. I'll take you back to Paris now, if you want."

"I'm sorry for overreacting," Hermione said. "I know I haven't been the best person to talk to, so I understand why you felt the need to take such drastic measures. But I don't want you to take me back, I want to stay here and talk. Actually there's something I need to talk to you about myself."

"Instead of talking right away, what do you think of the idea of spending a few hours on the beach before grabbing some dinner? We can then talk after dinner, or even wait until tomorrow," Draco suggested.

"And what exactly did you think we might do to occupy our time on the beach?" Hermione questioned with a smile. She rather liked putting the idea of talking off until later. At least this way she could enjoy some time with Draco before she potentially lost him.

"I have no idea," Draco shrugged, throwing Hermione his most innocent look. "Do you have any suggestions?"

"Firstly, I'm not sure we're appropriately dressed for the beach," Hermione replied.

Kicking off her sandals, she stood up and slowly began to unbutton the top she was wearing. Eventually she dropped the light blue material to the ground, before she began undoing her trousers and peeling them down her legs. With her top and trousers off, Hermione stood in front of Draco wearing a demure light blue bra and knickers set. It was nowhere near as sexy as the underwear she usually wore when she met Draco, but she'd been expecting to change before meeting up with him.

"I've got some better underwear in my bag," Hermione said, slightly self-conscious about her plain lingerie.

"Your underwear is just fine," Draco reassured his lover. "Although it would be even better off."

"As you wish."

Hermione grinned at Draco, before reaching behind her and unfastening her bra. Peeling the blue material away from her chest, she threw it onto the sand next to where Draco was sitting. Next she peeled her light blue knickers down her legs, and threw them onto the sand with her bra. Finally naked she walked a few steps closer to Draco, who was looking up at her with lust filled grey eyes.

"Is this better?" She asked coyly, gesturing to her naked body.

"Most definitely," Draco answered as he gestured for Hermione to come even closer.

Hermione shuffled closer to Draco, only stopping when she was standing directly in front of where he was sitting. Sitting up straighter, Draco placed his hands on Hermione's lower legs before he slowly began to move them upwards. When his hands reached her thighs, they travelled round to her back and swiftly moved up to caress her naked backside. Leaving his left hand on her bum, Draco moved his right hand around Hermione's thigh so it was resting a few inches from her heated core. Instead of moving any closer to where he truly wanted to be, Draco was quite content to just stroke the smooth skin of Hermione's thigh.

"You're such a tease," Hermione growled.

Draco just laughed in response, but his laughter soon stopped and turned into a low moan as Hermione grabbed his wrist and led his hand to where she wanted it. Draco's finger's effortlessly glided though Hermione's slick folds as she spread her legs to give him better access. After a few minutes teasing, Draco steadied his hands on Hermione's hips and pulled her down on top of him. Hermione landed sprawled over Draco, her legs straddling his and her breasts nearly in his face.

Draco took full advantage of having Hermione's bare breasts so close, and his mouth closed over one of her nipples as his fingers returned to their previous ministrations. Hermione moaned at the dual sensation of Draco's tongue and mouth working on her breasts, while his hand was busy in between her legs. Wrapping her arms securely around Draco's neck, Hermione trailed her lips over across her lover's cheek so they were positioned at his ear.

"I love it when you do this," She breathed into his ear, moaning slightly as his fingers crept inside her.

Even though she was hovering over him, Hermione could feel Draco's rapidly hardening erection and she knew a major turn on for him was hearing her moan for him. The fact she was doing it right into his ear was even hotter, and after a few minutes she could hear Draco own soft growls and whimpers as she moaned atop of him. Deciding to add a bit of extra spice to things, Hermione began to whisper in Draco's ear, begging him for more and telling him how good he was.

The sexy talk had an instant impact on Draco as he growled loudly and redoubled his efforts. As Draco's ministrations became a bit more urgent, Hermione's moaning and panting got louder as she felt her climax approaching. Hanging onto her lover, Hermione's sexy talk was abandoned as she writhed and moaned, before screaming out in pleasure as her orgasm ripped through her body with some substantial force.

"I love it when you scream for me," Draco chuckled as Hermione collapsed against him in a panting mess.

"Give me a few minute to recover, and you'll be the one screaming for me," Hermione replied shakily as she tried to catch her breath.

Once she'd recovered enough to move, she slid off Draco and landed on the warm sand. Knowing she'd need a shower to get rid of all the sand, but not caring, Hermione settled back and ordered Draco to strip. After kicking off his shoes, Draco jumped to his feet and like Hermione before him, he began to slowly remove his clothes. His green shirt was the first to go, followed by his trousers and finally his black boxers were discarded.

"Mmm." Hermione licked her lips and looked up at Draco with a devious smirk. "Very nice."

"Thank you," Draco grinned back at his lover. "Do you fancy a closer inspection?"

"I think I do," Hermione nodded as she sat upright. "Come here."

Draco stalked towards Hermione, and when he was right at her side he stopped and looked down at his lover. Hermione looked up at him with a wide smile, before turning her attention towards his engorged member.

"Now, it's your turn to scream," She promised as she got to work at reciprocating the orgasm she'd received from Draco.


	9. Chapter 8

After spending all afternoon on the beach, Hermione and Draco returned to the villa where they showered and changed. They then shared a quiet dinner, each of them lost in thought about the conversation that was to come. Both of them felt that the upcoming conversation would be make or break for their relationship. In the next few hours they would find out just how much they meant to each other.

After dinner Draco cracked open a bottle of wine, while Hermione grabbed two glasses. The couple then retired to the front room where they curled up on the sofa together. Draco poured them both a glass of wine, before the heart to heart began.

"Since I made such a big deal of getting you here, I think I should start," Draco said.

Hermione nodded, having no objections to Draco having his say first. She would rather he went first as by the time she finished she wasn't even sure if he would be speaking to her.

"I'm leaving Ginny," Draco announced, deciding to get straight to the point. "Over the course of the last six months, I've fallen in love with you, Hermione. I don't expect you to feel the same, but I was hoping we could at least have a try and see if we could work properly."

"I want nothing more than that," Hermione replied honestly. "But maybe you should wait until we've finished talking before making such a huge decision."

"I'm leaving Ginny, no matter what happens between us," Draco insisted. He didn't know whether to be pleased that Hermione wanted to give things a try with him, or worried that she'd then immediately backtracked and pretty much told him to stay with Ginny.

"That's your choice," Hermione said. "But I'm warning you now, by the end of the conversation you're likely to want nothing to do with me."

"What rubbish," Draco scoffed. "Nothing you can say, will change how I feel about you."

Instead of responding, Hermione just smiled sadly at Draco. She was convinced he would change his mind once her whole sordid story was laid out for him.

"While we're talking about Ginny, can I ask you a question?" Hermione asked, deciding to put off her part of the conversation.

"You can ask me anything."

"Why did you marry her? There's clearly something fundamentally wrong with the relationship considering you'd only been married a matter of months before you were jumping into bed with me."

"The answer to that goes back to directly after the war," Draco explained. "Once Voldemort was gone our entire family faced severe questioning by the Ministry. Father managed to keep out of Azkaban by giving the Aurors valuable information about fellow Death Eaters. Mother and I were also spared that fate because of the torment we suffered at Voldemort's hands. The Ministry were satisfied that I did what I thought was my only choice to protect my mother. They did however, impose conditions on not punishing me. One of those conditions was that I went back to school to repeat my last year, according to them if I got through the year without incident it would prove I had genuinely changed and was willing to make an effort in a world without prejudice."

"The world still has prejudice," Hermione snorted. "Granted most people don't judge on blood these days, but some still do. Then there's those who judge based on people's pasts and their family histories."

"I was using the Ministry's words, not mine. I know all about how prejudiced the world still is. And back then it was even worse," Draco said. "I was sent back to Hogwarts with everyone against me. The majority of the Slytherins hated me because they were trying to prove not all Slytherins were evil, and they thought my presence would hinder their cause. The rest of the Slytherins hated me because my family had turned their back on the dark and father was helping the Aurors track down the escaped Death Eaters. As for the rest of the school, they wanted nothing to do with me. In their eyes I was nothing more than a Death Eater that had escaped going to Azkaban."

"And this is where Ginny comes into it," Hermione guessed. She could just picture Ginny using Draco's isolation as a way to get her claws into him. Even before she discovered just what Ginny had done to her, Hermione had always felt there was a ruthless streak to the younger witch and when she set her heart on something, or someone, nothing could stand in her way.

"Yeah," Draco nodded. "She was pretty much the only person who would talk to me. The only other person who didn't treat me as a leper was Luna Lovegood, and while I appreciated that she was friendly, I did find it harder to connect with her. She's rather odd."

"Luna is an acquired taste," Hermione admitted. As much as Hermione liked Luna, she'd always found her hard to connect to because they were just so different.

"Anyway, there I was stuck at school with only Ginny, and sometimes Luna, speaking to me." Draco topped the two wine glasses up as he carried on with his story. "As I'm sure you can imagine, it didn't take long for Ginny and I to fall into bed together. The sex was okay, but it was better than no sex."

"You're such a romantic," Hermione chuckled, rolling her eyes at her lover.

"I try," Draco grinned at Hermione, before continuing on with his tale. "Anyway, it was just a bit of fun, certainly nothing serious. Towards the end of the year, I'd made the decision to go travelling for a bit once I left school. However, before the end of the year Ginny came to me in tears and announced she was pregnant."

"Pregnant!" Hermione's eyes widened at the revelation, and her mind started to click into gear. "Did she know of your plans to go travelling?"

"Yeah, I'd mentioned them. Why?" Draco asked.

"No reason," Hermione shrugged. She would share her theory with Draco once she had more information, for all she knew she could be jumping to conclusions based on the fact that Ginny wasn't her favourite person. "So what happened next?"

"Obviously Ginny being pregnant scuppered my travel plans, I couldn't leave when she was expecting my child," Draco sighed. "I always planned on standing by her, but when we told our parents they insisted we got married. Neither set of parents liked the idea of us marrying, but they both agreed we weren't having a baby out of wedlock."

"How old fashioned," Hermione remarked.

"Welcome to the wizarding world," Draco joked. "Especially purebloods, we're the most old fashioned of the lot."

"So your parents pushed you into marriage," Hermione concluded, getting the conversation back to Ginny.

"Ginny didn't need much pushing, she was all for the idea," Draco grumbled. "It was her that pushed for such a quick wedding. Our parents just wanted us to be married before the baby was born, but she insisted we got married before she started to show. She didn't want to get married with a baby bump."

"What happened with the baby?" Hermione questioned.

"A few weeks after we returned from honeymoon, she lost the baby," Draco said, a hint of sadness in his voice as he spoke of his lost child. "I returned from work one day to find her curled up in bed, and the baby was gone."

Hermione was guessing the miscarriage was the reason for Draco unexpectedly cancelling a few of his appointments shortly after returning from honeymoon. However, Hermione had been watching Ginny very closely at the time and she'd witnessed no trips to the hospital or anything that would suggest she'd suffered a miscarriage. If Ginny had genuinely lost a baby, then she'd managed to lead a very normal, seemingly happy, life at the same time.

"Did you ever go to the hospital with her?" Hermione asked.

"No, she'd already lost the baby when I came home from work," Draco answered. "She went to St Mungo's, but there was nothing they could do for her."

"What about after care appointment?" Hermione questioned. "Granted, I've never lost a baby, but I would expect there would be some sort of check-ups after the event."

"She never mentioned anything like that," Draco replied. "But what's with all the questions? What exactly are you suggesting?"

"You know what I'm suggesting," Hermione replied. "I think Ginny claimed to be pregnant to trap you into marriage, she then rushed ahead with the wedding at top speed, before conveniently losing the baby."

"She wouldn't do that," Draco said unconvincingly. He felt he had to defend his wife even though Hermione's words struck him as being true.

"With what I know about her, I would say she was capable of anything," Hermione replied, her hatred of Ginny shining through in the venomous way in which she spoke about her.

"You really don't like her, do you?" Draco was only just realising how much his lover detested his wife, and he knew that whatever the reason for Hermione's hatred had nothing to do with him.

"After what she's done to me, no I don't. In fact I hate the bitch," Hermione admitted.

"What exactly has she done to you?" Draco asked, curious about what had happened between the two women.

"Can we open another bottle of wine, before I begin?" Hermione asked. "The beginning of this is pretty hard to talk about. In fact, I've never actually spoken about it before."

Felling privileged that Hermione was going to confide in him, Draco headed off to grab a second bottle of wine. When he returned he poured some into each glass and watched as Hermione knocked hers back in one go.

"You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to," Draco said as he refilled Hermione's glass again.

"I want to tell you," Hermione insisted. "I need to tell you."

"Take your time, we've got all weekend," Draco said, taking hold of Hermione's hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"Has Ginny ever told you why I left, and I why I don't speak to anyone?" Hermione inquired. Since Draco had never brought the topic of Ron's death up, she was guessing he knew nothing of what had happened at the end of the war.

"No. She won't talk about you, and I'm not really friendly enough with the rest of her family to ask," Draco admitted.

"If that's the case, I don't suppose you know much about Ron's death," Hermione said. She could feel the tears building already as she just thought about her best friend and the reason he was no longer with them.

"All I know is that he died in the final battle."

"He did," Hermione nodded. "He died protecting me. I'd just finished fighting off a Death Eater, and I admit I was distracted worrying about Harry. One minute I was standing in the middle of the courtyard, and the next I was being knocked to the floor. When I got up, Ron was lying beside me dead. He'd thrown me to the ground, but the curse had hit him instead."

Hermione paused as her tears fell while she remembered Ron's lifeless body lying on top of her. Even though she now knew who had threw the curse she still felt guilty that Ron had died saving her. As Hermione cried softly for her friend, Draco pulled her into his arms and ran a soothing hand through her hair.

"You don't have to tell me anymore," He whispered, not wanting Hermione to upset herself further. "I know this must be difficult for you, but you can't blame yourself. I may not have liked Weasley, but he died a heroic death. Saving the life of someone he loved."

"I know, but I still can't help but blame myself slightly," Hermione admitted. "He died saving me, no matter what the circumstances there's going to be guilt."

"I guess so," Draco conceded. "That doesn't mean the guilt's deserved though. You did nothing to feel guilty for."

"Harry and the rest of the Weasleys told me that the day Ron died," Hermione said as she sat back up, ready to continue on with her story. "They were so understanding, and they didn't blame me in the slightest."

"I should think not, it wasn't your fault," Draco interrupted with a snort.

"Well their opinions soon changed," Hermione said. "When I got up the next morning, everyone had turned on me. Molly slapped me and accused me of being a murderer. Harry then made it clear that they wanted nothing more to do with me, and he told me to leave."

"The bastard," Draco spat. "Weren't you two a couple back then?"

"We were," Hermione confirmed.

"So that's why you don't talk to the Weasleys. They wrongly blame you for Ron's death," Draco concluded. "You know, I'm not really fond of the family, but that doesn't sound like them. Why did they suddenly turn on you?"

"For over a year I thought the shock of losing Ron had just worn off, and they'd blamed me because he died saving me," Hermione answered. "Then I ran into Harry, and he told me the truth. The day Ron died, Ginny had been hurt and she was unconscious by the time Ron's body was taken back to the castle. Sometime that night while I was asleep she woke up and claimed she'd witnessed the entire thing. She told Harry and her family that I'd used Ron as a shield to save myself. She told them I'd sacrificed Ron to save myself."

"The lying bitch," Draco seethed. "How could anyone believe that?"

"How do you know she's lying?" Hermione asked curiously. She was rather surprised that Draco had automatically called Ginny the liar, he'd never shown one flicker of doubt aimed in her direction.

"Because you would never do such a thing," Draco replied confidently. "And I'm not just saying that because of how I feel about you. I never would have believed that, even before we really got to know each other. There's no way the Hermione Granger I've known since I was eleven would do such a thing."

"I wish everyone else had the same faith in me," Hermione smiled sadly. "I can sort of understand the Weasleys believing Ginny. They'd just lost Ron and were devastated, plus they had no reason not to believe Ginny. I was however deeply hurt by the fact Harry believed I could do such a thing. We'd been best friends for years, and at the time we were a couple. Just hours before he'd been telling me how much he loved me and then he goes and believes the very worst of me."

"I always knew he was an arsehole," Draco muttered.

"I'm inclined to agree with you," Hermione said as she drained her wine glass again.

"So that's why you hate Ginny," Draco concluded, as he refilled Hermione's glass yet again. "The bitch lied and turned everyone against you."

"That's not all she did," Hermione said. "After speaking to Harry, I decided to check my memories of the day Ron was killed. I knew I hadn't used him as a shield, but I wanted to get a better picture of what had really happened that day. Before then, I'd locked the memory away and never thought about it."

"I take it you found something about Ginny in your memories."

Hermione nodded, before telling Draco everything she'd seen in her memories. She told him about how it took her a few viewings to find it, but she'd finally identified Ginny as the one who threw the curse. Hermione also shared her theory that Ginny had been trying to kill her, so she could get Harry back.

"I want to say, I don't believe you, but I know you wouldn't lie," Draco said, a stunned look on his face.

"I didn't want to believe it either," Hermione said. "I couldn't believe she would try and kill me to get Harry. Of course, I'm guessing the lie was to protect her back in case I mentioned that she threw the curse. Although if she hadn't have lied, I never would have looked at the memories so closely, therefore I never would have known the truth."

"All this because of Potter." Draco shook his head in disbelief. "Then when he wasn't interested, she set her sights on me."

Hermione was half tempted to stop right now, before she said anything that would cause her to lose Draco. However, she knew that if she really wanted some sort of future with the blond wizard that she had to be honest with him. He had to know everything, no matter how hard it would be for Hermione to tell him.

"There's something else I've got to tell you," Hermione said, taking a deep breath. "And I don't think you're going to like it."


	10. Chapter 9

Draco looked at Hermione expectantly, as the brunette witch struggled to find the words to admit what she'd been up to. Several times she opened her mouth to speak, but just couldn't manage to tell Draco what was going on. Her fear of losing him was making it increasingly hard to admit the truth.

"Whatever it is, it can't be that bad," Draco finally said, taking hold of Hermione's hand.

"It is," Hermione whispered. "But I want you to remember that no matter what I tell you, my feelings for you are genuine. I am rapidly falling in love with you, and I want nothing more than to be with you properly."

"So what's the problem?" Draco asked. "What's your big secret?"

"I've been lying to you from the very beginning," Hermione admitted with a sigh as she stood up and wandered over to the window. "Our meetings weren't coincidence, I always knew where to find you."

"I figured that much out for myself," Draco chuckled. "Not that I know how you were finding me."

"I'll get to that in time, but I think I should start at the beginning," Hermione said. Taking a deep breath so turned around to face Draco as she began to tell her lover the entire story. "After I discovered what Ginny had done to me, I was so angry. I promised I would destroy her life, just like she'd destroyed mine. I quit my job in Australia, and returned home with the sole purpose of ruining Ginny's life."

"But you haven't done anything," Draco pointed out. "I'm fairly sure Ginny doesn't even know you're back."

"I have done something. Well I set a plan in motion, I just haven't followed through on it," Hermione said. "When I returned to London I set about finding out about Ginny's life. I have to admit I expected her to have more of a life, but it appears her life now revolves around being a pampered, rich wife."

"Tell me about it," Draco snorted. "I've tried to encourage her to get a job, but she claims she's not ready after the miscarriage. If there ever was a miscarriage."

"I still can't know for sure, but I'm guessing not," Hermione told her lover. "Back then I was following her all the time to get information about her life, and it never appeared as though she'd lost a baby. Unless she's a brilliant actress, and could hide her devastation in public."

"I'm sure I can find out the truth," Draco said. "But for now, I'm more interested in you. What sort of plan did you set in motion?"

"As I said Ginny's life is pretty empty, the only thing I could find in it that she might value was you," Hermione answered.

"Me," Draco repeated quietly, not liking the thoughts that were running about in his head. "You decided to use me to get back at Ginny."

Hermione nodded, turning back to the window so she didn't have to witness the hurt on Draco's face. "I decided that her marriage was the only thing she had going in her life, so I vowed to destroy it," She explained. "I planned to seduce you and make sure she caught us together."

"Then why approach me when I was abroad?" Draco questioned, pushing his hurt to one side so he could get some answers from Hermione. "Why not approach me at home?"

"I didn't want it to be a one off. I wanted Ginny to catch us after we'd been together for at least a few weeks, possibly even months."

"You didn't want me to be able to talk my way out of trouble," Draco concluded. A one off, Ginny might have been able to overlook, but it would have been much harder for her to overlook something that had happened numerous times.

"No, I didn't," Hermione admitted. "I just wanted to ensure that her marriage was ruined."

"And I was just collateral damage," Draco spat. "You never gave me a second thought."

"Not at first, no," Hermione replied, plucking up the courage to turn around and face her lover. "But my plans soon went out of the window once we started up. I never expected to fall for you, Draco. I tried so hard to keep my distance, but in the end I couldn't help it. I began to fall in love with you."

"Don't insult my intelligence Hermione," Draco snarled, glaring at the brunette witch. "You don't care for me. You've been using me."

"Only at first," Hermione said as she headed over to the sofa and sat down next to Draco. When Draco made to get up, Hermione grabbed her wrist and kept him beside her. "Think about it, Draco. If all I wanted was to ruin Ginny's life then why have I waited six months? If that's all I wanted, I would have ensured she'd found out about us before now. I kept coming back for you, because I care about you."

Hermione's arguments did make sense to Draco, but they couldn't disguise the fact she'd set out to use him. How could he ever trust her when their entire relationship was founded upon a lie?

"You hate me, don't you?" Hermione sighed, letting go of Draco's wrist.

"I should do, but I don't," Draco admitted as he stood up and walked over to the other side of the room. "To be honest Hermione, I don't know what the hell to do. There's a large part of me that wants to walk away from you and never look back, but there's another part of me that can see where you were coming from. I just don't know if I can get past this."

"I understand," Hermione said sadly, fighting back tears as the realisation that she'd likely lost Draco hit her. "I never meant to hurt you, Draco. I admit, initially I never gave you a second thought, but that changed the first time we were together. I should have walked away then, but I didn't. I let myself get sucked into seeing you again."

"Why did you?" Draco asked. "Why did you arrange the second meeting, if you were unsure of your plan?"

"Partly because I'm stubborn and wasn't ready to admit my plan was going to fail," Hermione answered honestly. "But mainly because you made me feel something again. After what happened with losing Ron and being rejected by Harry, I locked my heart away. I closed myself off from everyone, and pretty much just went through the motions of living. Then we had our night together, and for the first time in over eighteen months, I felt something. I felt as though life could have meaning again."

"I have one more question," Draco said. He needed time to digest everything that had happened before he rushed into making any decisions about his life. "How did you keep finding me?"

"When you were on honeymoon I visited your office. I distracted your secretary and made a copy of your diary. I than enchanted it so any new appointments would show up in my copy. With that I was able to keep track of your movements," Hermione explained.

"My secretary didn't help you, did she?" Draco checked.

"No. She had no idea what I'd done," Hermione said. "Don't blame her for anything, this whole mess is all my doing."

"I'm tempted to include Ginny in apportioning blame," Draco replied. "This wouldn't have happened if she wasn't a murdering little bitch with a penchant for lying through her teeth."

"So what happens now?" Hermione asked. She was fully aware that Draco had moved away from her as soon as he could and he'd given her no indication that he still cared for her after her admissions.

"I need time to think," Draco said. "I'll take us back home."

Leaving Hermione sitting on the sofa, Draco strode out of the room and returned five minutes later carrying both of their overnight bags. Handing Hermione her bag, Draco wordlessly pulled out his wand before clasping his spare hand around Hermione's wrist. In an instant the pair dissapparated with a pop, leaving the peace and tranquillity of the island behind them.

When they landed, Draco immediately let go of Hermione. Hermione tried not to be too upset by Draco's unwillingness to touch her as she looked around, trying to gather her bearings. They'd arrived in an office of some sort and Hermione suspected they were back in London, and in Draco's office at work.

"We're back in London," Draco confirmed as though he'd read Hermione's mind. "I take it you know you way out of the building."

"I do," Hermione nodded, hurt by Draco's abrupt dismissal. "But before I go, I'm going to give you my address." Hermione found a quill and some scrap parchment on Draco's desk and neatly wrote down the address of her small flat. "I understand if you never want to see me again, but this is where I'll be for the foreseeable future. I meant what I said earlier Draco, I want nothing more than to be with you."

"What about your revenge on Ginny?" Draco asked as Hermione handed him her address.

"You're more important to me than revenge," Hermione answered. "I'd rather have you, than revenge."

Hermione took one last look at Draco, before turning and heading for the door. As she made her way through the building she kept hoping Draco would come after her, begging her to stay with him. He never did though and Hermione was soon standing outside the vast building that housed Draco's family business. Hermione looked up at the top window and for a moment she thought she saw Draco watching her, but then the figure was gone and she was staring at a dark window.

Sighing deeply, she pulled out her wand and apparated away. While it may have been the right thing to tell the truth, it had potentially lost her the man she was falling in love with, and Hermione was left wondering if she had made the right decision. Maybe she should have kept quiet, and instead of arriving back in her small lonely flat, she would have been on a beautiful island making plans for the future with Draco.

**xXx**

After Hermione left his office, it took every ounce of Draco's will power not to go after her. Going after her wouldn't be a productive move, first he had to clear his head and he couldn't do that with Hermione in such close proximity. He needed space from her to make some very tough decisions. Instead of going after his lover, he walked over to the window and watched as she emerged from the building. When she looked up, he backed away from the window, but he could still see when she disappeared into thin air.

Looking down at the scrap of parchment that contained Hermione's address, Draco shoved it in his pocket and grabbed his bag. After securing the building, Draco disappeared with a pop. Instead of landing at home, or near home, he arrived just outside of Blaise's place and knocked on the door. He'd already told Ginny he was going to be away for the weekend, and to be honest he needed someone to confide in. Not only did he have to make a decision about Hermione, but he also had to consider the fact Ginny may never have been pregnant.

"Draco." A surprised Blaise greeted his friend as he opened the door. "I thought you'd gone away for the weekend."

"I'm back," Draco replied shortly. "Can I spend the rest of the weekend here?"

"Of course you can." Blaise opened the door so Draco could enter the flat. "Are you going to tell me what happened?" He asked, following his best friend into the front room.

"Yeah, I need some advice," Draco said. "But I suggest you get us a couple of stiff drinks, we're going to need them."

Blaise did as Draco suggested and poured two large glasses of firewhisky. He also brought the bottle with him and placed it on the coffee table as he sat down and handed Draco his drink. Draco drowned half his drink straight away and topped his glass up before telling Blaise about what had happened with Hermione.

Blaise listened to his friend's tale, half of the time with his mouth hanging open. By the end of the story, he was a whirl of emotions himself so he could only imagine the confusion in Draco's head.

"I'm speechless," Blaise muttered.

"That'll be a first," Draco replied with a slight smile.

"I just don't know where to begin," Blaise said. "You know I've never liked Ginny, but it's hard to believe she killed her own brother and lied about Hermione's role in proceedings."

"Are you saying Hermione is lying?" Draco asked, his grey eyes flashing furiously at the idea Blaise might be questioning his lover.

"No, I'd believe Hermione over your tart of a wife any day," Blaise reassured his friend. "I'm just saying, it's hard to get your head around."

"It is," Draco agreed. "And what do you think about the baby? Did she lie to me?"

"I'm guessing we'd have to check it out to be sure, but I wouldn't put it past her," Blaise replied. "It was awfully suspicious that no sooner had you told her of your plans to go travelling, then she was telling you she was pregnant. Then look at the way she rushed the wedding, you could have waited to get married."

"It looks like she wanted to ensure we got married as soon as possible," Draco said. "The longer we waited the harder it would have been to fake a pregnancy and miscarriage."

"Maybe she never intended to fake the miscarriage," Blaise suggested. "Maybe her plan was to snare you into marrying her, and really ending up pregnant."

"For that to work she would have had to have fallen pregnant really quickly," Draco said. "Probably before we left school, otherwise it would have been obvious that the baby wasn't conceived when she claimed it was."

"On second thoughts, maybe she hadn't intended to end up pregnant," Blaise mused, seeing that Draco was right and Ginny would have had to have gotten pregnant really quick for the idea to work.

"I'm guessing she was fairly confident that our parents would insist we get married," Draco said. "From what I've seen of her parents they're pretty old fashioned, and it doesn't take a genius to work out my parents would insist on a marriage. Purebloods don't have children out of wedlock, and Ginny would know my parents would disapprove of me doing so."

"Of course it's all supposition," Blaise shrugged. "First you need to find proof she was never pregnant, and then to get the real truth you need to confront her. Unless of course you're just going to forget this ever happened and stay with her."

"That's not an option," Draco insisted firmly. "Ginny and I are over. I can't stay with her knowing everything that she's done."

"And what about Hermione?" Blaise asked, unsure if he should mention the other woman in Draco's life. When Draco was telling him about Hermione, it was clear his friend was totally torn on what to do about her. "Do you and her have a future?"

"I have no idea," Draco admitted with a sigh. "I love her Blaise, but I'm not sure I can forgive her. I believe she genuinely cares about me, but that doesn't erase the fact she deliberately set out to seduce me and ruin my marriage."

"Okay, I admit that could be a sticky thing to move past. But let's not forget, none of this could have happened if you hadn't wanted her. You didn't have to jump into bed with her, no matter what her motives were, you were more than willing to sleep with her."

"I guess so," Draco nodded. "But she's being lying to me for months."

"At least now she's come clean," Blaise pointed out to his friend. "Don't rush into making a decision, Draco. Think about it over the weekend, before you make any final choices. I know Hermione's lied to you, but at least she's admitted she was wrong and told you the truth. That has to count for something."

"Maybe," Draco shrugged as he stood up. "But I'm too tired to think about it anymore tonight. I'm off to bed."

"You know where the spare room is," Blaise replied.

Draco nodded and thanked Blaise for putting him up, before he headed off to the spare room. Pulling his clothes off, Draco collapsed onto the bed and lay in the darkness, his mind refusing to shut off so he could sleep. Eventually he did drift off into a restless sleep, with both Ginny and Hermione haunting his dreams.


	11. Chapter 10

The week after Hermione had confessed everything to Draco, she barely left her flat in hopes the blond wizard would turn up at her door. However as the week progressed and there was still no sign of her lover, Hermione began to face the fact she'd lost him. Although to be honest she felt it was no more than she deserved. Vengeance hadn't been the right way to deal with Ginny, and in the end she'd only succeeded in hurting herself and Draco.

By Friday afternoon, exactly a week after she'd last seen Draco, Hermione was trying to decide what to do about her future. She had to decide whether to expose Ginny for the murdering liar she was, or whether it was best to just walk away and forget about the redhead. She also had to decide about getting a job. Did she want to stay in London and settle back in England, or did she want a fresh start somewhere new? To be honest the thought of remaining in London without Draco just didn't appeal to Hermione. She was already without friends, so without Draco as well she didn't see the point in staying. She might as well move on and start over.

In a bid to try and get some focus, Hermione headed off for a walk. Since she doubted she was sticking around, she steered clear of the wizarding world and instead headed into muggle London. After walking around for several hours she'd still made no firm decisions as she headed back towards her flat.

As Hermione approached the building she lived in she spotted a figure hovering around the doors. For a second she thought it was Draco, but when she looked closer she could see the man had dark hair. Sighing in disappointment, Hermione carried on towards the front doors, ignoring the man on the street.

"Hermione," The man called, stopping her before she entered the building.

Hermione turned to look at the stranger, and realised that he wasn't a complete stranger after all. It was Blaise Zabini, Draco's best friend. Hermione hadn't seen Blaise since before the last year of the war, but she instantly recognised Draco's good looking best friend. Blaise owned a popular restaurant in London, which he was looking to expand into a chain, and he was often pictured in the papers with various beautiful witches on his arm.

"You probably don't remember me, but we went to school together," Blaise said, thinking Hermione didn't recognise him as they'd never really had anything to do with one another back in school.

"I know who you are," Hermione replied. "You're Blaise Zabini. Although I'm puzzled as to why you're here."

"I want to talk to you, it's about Draco," Blaise said, chuckling when Hermione's eyes widened at the mention of his best friend. "Don't look so shocked, Hermione. I know all about the two of you."

"How much do you know?" Hermione asked curiously. She was wondering if Draco had sent Blaise to make sure she got the message that things were over between them.

"Everything."

Hermione nodded before turning back towards the door of her building. "You better come in," She called back to Blaise as she entered the building.

Blaise followed Hermione into the building and up to her flat. He then followed her inside her small place and looked around in surprise. The flat was very spartan and held absolutely nothing to indicate it was somewhere that someone lived on a permanent basis. It looked very much like a stopgap place for Hermione to sleep when she was in town. There was no sign of her personality in the place at all.

"Do you want a cup of tea or coffee?" Hermione asked.

"Coffee would be great, thanks," Blaise replied.

"Take a seat," Hermione said, gesturing to the sofa in the corner of the front room. "I'll be back in a minute."

Blaise settled himself on the sofa, which was really rather comfortable, and continued his assessment of the room. Finally he managed to find some hint of Hermione in the place as there was a small bookshelf standing beside the sofa. No doubt the brunette witch had plenty more books somewhere, but at least it was an indication that she spent some time in the flat.

Blaise was happily checking out which books the former Gryffindor owned, when Hermione returned with the coffee. Handing Blaise his cup, she settled down on a chair opposite him, cradling her own cup in her hands.

"So, you know everything," Hermione said, deciding to jump straight into things and find out what Blaise wanted.

"I do," Blaise nodded. "Draco confided in me after your very first encounter, and I've been his confidant ever since."

"And what, you're here to tell me I've hurt him and I should leave him alone?" Hermione questioned.

"No," Blaise answered, shaking his head. "I don't think you should leave him alone at all. I think if you do that, then the pair of you will end up miserable."

"Then what do you want?" Hermione questioned.

"I want you to come with me and talk to him," Blaise said. "He's due at my place this evening, and I think you should talk."

"So he doesn't know you're here," Hermione sighed sadly. "He doesn't want to talk to me Blaise, if he did he would be here himself."

"Honestly, he doesn't know what he wants," Blaise told Hermione. "He's in a right mess, Hermione. At the minute he's focusing on Ginny and finding out if she was ever pregnant. He's refusing to thing about you and your situation."

"Then why should I go and see him?" Hermione asked. "If he won't even think about me, then surely that implies we're over."

"If you were over, he would have ended things by now," Blaise said. "He doesn't want to think about you, because he's hurt and confused. I'm not going to tell you how much you hurt him, because I think you know that. But I will tell you how much he loves you, if he didn't truly love you then he would have walked away from you. He wants to be with you, but he needs reassurance that you want the same thing."

"I told him I wanted to be with him, but I don't think he believed me," Hermione said.

"Draco is as stubborn as they come, if you want him you'll have to fight for him," Blaise advised. "You have to show him that you won't give up, that you truly want to be with him."

Hermione looked at Blaise curiously, wondering why he cared so much about bringing the together. Surely as Draco's best friend he should be against him having anything to do with the woman who lied to him and slept with him with the intention of ending his marriage.

"Why are you so determined to see us together?" Hermione asked.

"Because Draco's my best friend and I want him to be happy," Blaise answered. "These last six months have been the first time in years I've seen him happy. You make him happy, Hermione."

"But what about everything I've done?" Hermione questioned. "I lied to him, and I tried to wreck his marriage. I'm a terrible person, he deserves better than me."

"You're not a terrible person," Blaise told the witch, surprised she was so down on herself. "Granted your actions weren't the best, but they were a product of your anger and hurt. You'd just found out someone you considered a friend had ruined your life and you were angry, it was understandable that you weren't thinking straight and made some bad choices."

"But that doesn't justify dragging Draco into things," Hermione sighed. "I never should have messed with his life, he didn't deserve to have me come along and mess it up."

"Things may be messy now, but in the long run I think you've done him a favour," Blaise said. "He deserves better than to be married to a witch that trapped him into marriage and then lied about losing a child. What Draco deserves is someone who loves him, and I think that person is you."

"I do love him," Hermione whispered. It was only this last week that she realised she wasn't falling in love with Draco, she'd already fallen.

"Then fight for him," Blaise urged as he stood up and pulled a business card from his pocket and handed it to Hermione. "I've written my address on the back. Please come and at least talk to Draco. You both deserve that chance."

Leaving Hermione with his address, Blaise left the witch's flat. He'd done all he could, now he would just have to wait and see if Hermione showed up at his later on. He hoped she did, as until her and Draco settled down to talk nothing would be resolved and his best friend would only be miserable.

**xXx**

When Draco arrived at his flat, Blaise wondered if something bad had happened as his friend seemed even more withdrawn than he had been all week. Obviously his first thought revolved around Hermione and he hoped Draco hadn't done something stupid like send her a message telling her he never wanted to see her again.

"What's wrong?" Blaise asked as the pair settled down with a couple of beers. "You look more miserable than usual."

"The investigator I hired ran into a few problems at St Mungo's. His source no longer works there, so it will take longer to get what we need," Draco answered.

First thing on Monday morning, Draco had gotten in touch with a contact of his father's, who happened to be a private investigator, and set him on finding out the truth about Ginny. Before Draco could make any firm decisions about his marriage he needed to know how much Ginny had lied to him, he needed to know if she'd ever even been pregnant. Initially the investigator had promised him progress by today, but when he'd gone to see him before arriving at Blaise's, he'd discovered there was a snag.

"How much longer?" Blaise asked.

"He's not sure," Draco shrugged. "It could be Monday, or it could be the back end of next week."

"I don't suppose a week's going to make much difference," Blaise pointed out.

"I guess not, but I just need to know the truth," Draco replied. "I want to know if I've grieved over a child that never existed. I may not have originally been thrilled that Ginny was pregnant, but by the time she lost the baby, I was looking forward to becoming a father. I was genuinely upset when she told me she had a miscarriage."

"I know," Blaise said softly. Draco had actually come to see him a few days after the miscarriage, and Blaise had never seen him so cut up.

"I just want the whole thing to be over," Draco sighed, leaning back and closing his eyes. "I want to move on with my life."

"And is there a certain brunette witch involved in your plans to move on?" Blaise asked.

"I have no idea," Draco admitted. "I haven't plucked up the courage to go and talk to Hermione yet."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm afraid she'll tell me she's changed her mind, and she was just using me after all."

"You don't believe that," Blaise snorted. "You know, she really cares for you. If she was just using you, she would have made sure Ginny found out about the affair months ago."

Draco grunted in response, but before Blaise could question him further the doorbell rang. Draco opened his eyes and sat up at the sound.

"Are you expecting anyone?" He asked as Blaise jumped up to answer the door.

"Hopefully," Blaise answered, before disappearing from the front room.

Less than a minute later, Blaise returned to the front room with Hermione in tow. Draco's eyes widened at the sight of his lover, and he looked between her and his friend for an explanation.

"I invited Hermione," Blaise told Draco. "I memorised her address last weekend when you were sitting about staring at it for hours. This afternoon I went to see her and asked her to come and talk to you."

"I'm not sure we have anything to talk about," Draco muttered.

"Oh yes you do," Blaise insisted. "And neither of you are leaving this room until you've talked to one another."

"Blaise's right, we need to talk," Hermione said, approaching the sofa Draco was sitting on and hovering beside it.

"I guess we do," Draco conceded. "Sit down."

Blaise smiled as Hermione perched beside Draco. Telling the couple he would be in the kitchen if they needed him, Blaise left them alone to talk. Of course from the kitchen he would be able to hear enough to know how things were going between the pair.

"I'm so sorry Draco," Hermione said once they were alone. "The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you. I know I should have told you the truth months ago, but I was afraid."

"Of what?" Draco asked, turning his head so he was looking at Hermione.

"This," Hermione said, gesturing between the two of them. "I was afraid things would end up like this, with you hating me."

"I don't hate you," Draco said quietly. "I also understand that you never set out to hurt me. I know that when you started your plan for vengeance we didn't really know one another, and to be honest after everything I did to you at school, I probably deserved a bit of payback as well."

"That never entered my mind," Hermione said. "To be honest you never entered my mind. I was so focused on Ginny that I forgot to take you into consideration. I was so selfish that I never thought about the fact I was ruining your life as well."

"As Blaise pointed out, none of this could have happened if I wasn't willing to cheat on my wife and hop into bed with you," Draco said. "If Ginny and I had been really happy and I loved her, then your plan would have failed to even take off. I'm as much to blame as you are."

"I'm not sure I would say that," Hermione sighed. "All you're guilty of is cheating on your wife. I set out to destroy a marriage and I've ended up hurting the person I love more than anything in this world."

"You love me." Draco stared at Hermione in shock. The previous week he'd been very aware that Hermione kept saying she was falling in love with him, not that she actually loved him.

"I do," Hermione admitted. "I realised this week that I've been lying to myself. I was trying to tell myself I was only in the process of falling in love with you, and that I could stop myself before it was too late. But this last week I admitted to myself that I fell a long time ago. I've been in love with you for quite a while."

"I love you too," Draco said, reaching up and cupping Hermione's face in his hand. "Do you think there's any chance this will work?"

"That's entirely up to you," Hermione replied. "I'm the one that hurt you. I suppose it all depends on whether or not you can forgive me and we can move past this."

Draco studied Hermione for several seconds, before he offered her a smile. "I can forgive you. I want to see if we have a future together."

"For Merlin's sake, give her a kiss," Blaise's voice called from the kitchen.

Hermione and Draco both laughed at Blaise, but their laughter soon ceased as their eyes locked and the serious mood returned. Slowly Draco lowered his lips over Hermione's, and the pair shared a deep kiss. When they parted, Draco pulled Hermione into his arms and the couple sat for several minutes just holding one another.

Their future together wasn't a certainty, but at least now they had a chance. All they had to do was discover the truth about Ginny and decide what to do about Draco's wife. Only then could they really see if they had a future together, or if their entire relationship had just been a passionate fling.


	12. Chapter 11

Hermione had only been out of the shower for five minutes when there was a knock on the door. All she'd had time to do before she was interrupted was magically dry her hair and towel dry her body, before applying her body lotion. Grabbing a towel she hadn't used, Hermione wrapped it around her body as she went to answer the door. She knew the only people who knew where she lived was Draco and Blaise, so the person at the door would likely be her lover or his best friend.

When Hermione answered the door she found Draco standing on the other side. Draco opened his mouth as though he was going to speak, but nothing came out as he gawped at Hermione, his eyes travelling up and down her scantily clad body a couple of times.

"Are you going to stand there staring, or are you coming in?" Hermione asked, opening the door so her lover could enter the small flat.

"Do you always answer the door in a towel?" Draco asked as he entered the flat and shut the door behind him.

Hermione shrugged in response. "You're the only person who's ever knocked on the door. Besides, I knew it was either you or Blaise, no-one else knows I'm here."

"You would answer the door to Blaise, looking like that?" Draco questioned, jealously flashing in his grey eyes. "He wouldn't be able to tear his eyes away from you."

"It's not as if he can see anything," Hermione pointed out. The towel was big enough to cover all her assets.

"I bet you can if you bend over," Draco muttered.

"Want to try?" Hermione suggested with a saucy grin.

"It's tempting," Draco replied. "But since I didn't know you would be answering the door in a towel, it's not why I came round."

"Do you want me to go and get dressed so we can talk?" Hermione asked.

It was only just occurring to her that there must be a reason Draco had dropped round to her flat. It had been decided on Friday evening that it was too risky for Draco to be visiting her place, just in case he was seen. Instead they'd planned to meet up at Blaise's place, and the first meeting wasn't scheduled to the upcoming Friday. And since it was only Tuesday that meant Draco wanted to talk about something important.

"You don't need to get dressed. We can still talk like you are," Draco told his lover.

Hermione nodded and after checking if Draco wanted a drink, the couple settled in the front room. As he sat down, Draco looked around the place in curiosity and Hermione wondered if he was judging how small the place was. In the last six months she'd never seen any sign of the judgemental rich kid he'd been back in school, but she knew that her place wasn't ever going to be somewhere fit for a Malfoy. She knew for a fact that some of the rooms at the Manor were bigger than her entire flat.

"I know this place isn't much, but its home," Hermione said, feeling the need to defend her flat.

"Is it?" Draco questioned, curling his nose up. "Because it doesn't look like it. This place looks distinctly like somewhere you spend as little time as possible. There is no trace that this is your home, it merely looks like you use the place for somewhere to sleep."

Hermione didn't bother arguing, as she knew Draco was right. This flat wasn't her home any more than her place in Australia had been home. Her home had been the house she'd grown up in, the house she'd forced her parents to move from in a bid to keep them safe during the war. Even Hogwarts had never felt like home, to her it had just been a school. Granted she'd loved Hogwarts, but it hadn't been home. A home was something she hadn't had in a long time.

"Why doesn't this place feel like your home?" Draco asked his lover. "Where's all of your stuff?"

"What stuff?" Hermione shrugged. "I've unpacked everything I had in Australia. Some of my books are in here, some are in my bedroom along with my clothes, and apart from that I've only got a few little knick-knacks."

"What about all your childhood stuff?" Draco questioned. During the course of their affair, Hermione had told him all about her parents and what she'd done to keep them safe during the war. "I know you told me that you obliviated your parents and ensured they left the country, but you had to have done something with the stuff in your house."

"I packed all my stuff up and took it to The Burrow," Hermione explained. "As for the rest, I also took a pile of pictures and removed myself from everything else in my parents' house. Most of their stuff is with them in Australia."

"And your stuff is still at The Burrow?" Draco checked.

"I doubt it," Hermione snorted. "I'm sure after what happened the Weasleys got rid of my things. Before I went away with Harry and Ron, Molly agreed to store my belongings until I needed them. After what happened I never thought about them, but even if I had done, I don't think I would have gone to The Burrow."

"What about your cat?" Draco asked. "Did you leave him with the Weasleys, because I've never seen him on the couple of occasions I've visited."

"That's where I left Crookshanks," Hermione sighed.

She'd actually remembered about Crookshanks minutes before she boarded the plane to Australia, and for one minute she'd been tempted to turn around and go and get her beloved cat. However between the hassle of getting him into another country, and the fact she just wanted to be as far away as possible, she'd decided to leave him where he was. She was hoping the Weasleys wouldn't take their anger at her out on her cat, but now she was worried about what they may have done to him.

"We'll have to find out what happened to your things, and your cat," Draco said. "Hopefully someone had the decency to keep them safe. We can find out once everything is dealt with regarding Ginny."

"Is that why you're here?" Hermione asked. "Do you have some information about Ginny?"

"Yeah," Draco nodded. "I spoke to the investigator today, and he's given me everything I needed to know. I've got a copy of her medical records in the safe at work."

"She wasn't pregnant, was she?"

"No." Draco shook his head sadly. He still couldn't believe that Ginny had let him grieve for a child that had never even existed. "She's been on a contraceptive injection since she was seventeen. Throughout seventh year Madam Pomfrey gave her the injection every month, and since then she's been going to a private healer. She got a jab just before our wedding, and she only stopped having the injection last month."

"Why has she stopped getting the injection?" Hermione questioned, before her eyes widened in realisation and she looked at Draco in horror. "You're trying for another baby."

"Ginny's being trying to persuade me to try for a baby, but I've been refusing," Draco corrected his lover. He didn't want Hermione getting the wrong end of the stick and thinking he'd been happy with Ginny and planned on staying with her. "I think she knows she's losing me, and she knows a baby will keep us together."

"If she hasn't been taking her injection, what if she's pregnant?" Hermione asked quietly. "Even with all her lies, you can't abandon your child."

"If she's pregnant, then the baby's not mine," Draco said. "We haven't slept together for months, and the few times we have been together, I've been really careful with the contraceptive charm."

"I don't need to know about your sex life with Ginny," Hermione grimaced.

Draco chuckled at the disgusted look on Hermione's face, it perfectly mirrored what he thought about having to sleep with Ginny. Since his affair with Hermione started, Draco could count on one had the amount of times he hadn't been able to avoid his wife's advances and had ended up in bed with her. And while he'd always thought sex with Ginny was rather dull, after being with Hermione it was even more tedious.

"So now you know Ginny tricked you into marriage, what are you going to do?" Hermione asked, eager to change the subject away from Draco's sex life with his wife.

"This needs to be handled carefully," Draco said. "I want everything sorted before I confront her, and that's going to take some time."

"That's fine, I'm not going anywhere," Hermione replied.

"Actually, I was hoping you might move in with Blaise," Draco said warily as he wasn't sure how Hermione would feel about him trying to make arrangements for her life.

"Why would I want to move in with Blaise?" Hermione asked with a confused frown.

"It might take a few weeks to get things with Ginny sorted, and it would be easier if you were with Blaise. I can always tell Ginny I'm at Blaise's, and no-one will get suspicious of me coming and going from his place. However if I'm seen coming here, it could ruin everything," Draco explained.

Hermione nodded, seeing the logic in Draco's suggestion. If she was with Blaise then she could hopefully see Draco a lot more often. Plus it would be much easier to discuss the future. As well as Draco dealing with leaving Ginny, he'd also made it clear that they were going to find a way to expose her for the lies she'd told to wreck Hermione's life. All that would be easier to sort if they could see each other regularly.

"Have you spoke to Blaise about this?" Hermione questioned. She didn't want to agree to move in with Blaise, only to discover he knew nothing about the plan.

"Of course," Draco nodded. "I spoke to him this afternoon, and he's happy for you to stay in the spare room until we know what's going on. He was getting ready to head off on a business trip when I was speaking to him, but he said he can call round on Friday afternoon and help you move your stuff. I can then come round on Friday evening and we can talk about what happens next."

"That sounds like a plan," Hermione said. "I can be all packed up by Friday."

"Now that's all sorted, how about we find out just how exposed you are in that towel," Draco suggested with a wicked smirk.

"Do you have time, or are you going to rush out on me?" Hermione questioned.

"I've got a few hours," Draco replied. "I sent an owl to Ginny saying I was going to be held up at work, so as long as I'm not too late it'll be fine."

"Then we best make the most of the time we do have," Hermione said as she stood up and held her hand out to Draco.

Draco took hold of Hermione's hand as he stood up and let her lead him towards the bedroom. The bedroom showed a bit more of Hermione's personality, and as well as more shelves full of books there were little trinkets dotted about the room. Draco spotted several glass animals and made a note to ask about them, if they were something Hermione collected he was sure he could add a few more to her collection.

"I think you're a little overdressed," Hermione said, drawing Draco's attention back towards her.

"I can easily remedy that," Draco grinned.

Throwing off his jacket, he kicked off his shoes and pulled his socks off. He then quickly shed his shirt and trousers, but when he reached for his boxers, Hermione stopped him.

"Allow me," She said, kneeling in front of him and licking her lips.

Teasingly, Hermione hooked her fingers in the waistband of Draco's black boxers and slowly pulled them down his legs. Leaving the material around Draco's ankles, Hermione turned her attention to the newly exposed part of her lover. Her teasing had created the beginning of an erection, but she knew it wouldn't take much to ensure her lover was ready for action.

"Sit on the bed," She ordered, looking up at Draco.

Draco hurriedly stepped out of his boxers and moved the few paces backward so he was standing beside the bed. Sitting down, he watched as Hermione stood up and casually flicked open her towel. As the fluffy white towel floated down to the floor, Draco's eyes were drinking in his lover's body. It didn't matter how many times he'd seen Hermione naked, the sight always got an instant rise out of him.

"That's much better," Hermione grinned at the sight of Draco's rapidly hardening member.

"Are you going to stand there admiring the view, or are you going to do something?" Draco asked.

"I'm going to do something," Hermione smirked as she stalked towards Draco and dropped to her knees in front of him. "All you have to do is sit back and enjoy."

"I always do," Draco grinned, emitting a low moan as Hermione wrapped her hand around his erection.

Draco's moans soon grew louder as Hermione's mouth joined in the teasing of her lover. Placing a hand on top of Hermione's head, Draco wrapped his fingers in her curls as he gently encouraged her movements. Hermione let out a contented hum as she felt Draco's hand tangle in her hair. Between the sounds he made and his encouraging hand, she always knew exactly what turned him on and what he liked.

With Draco's hand guiding her movements, Hermione continued to pleasure her lover. As the frequency of Draco's moans grew, he disentangled his hand from Hermione's hair and panted out a warning. Instead of being deterred by the warning, Hermione carried on with her actions until Draco cried out her name as his orgasm gripped him.

While Draco collapsed back onto the bed, Hermione cleaned herself up before climbing onto the bed and settling herself against the pillows. After a few moments, Draco stirred and hauled himself up so he was lying next to her.

"That was great," He grinned. "But you'll have to give me time to recover."

"I'm sure we can find some way to fill the time," Hermione retorted, smiling as Draco's hands trailed across her firm stomach.

"I'm sure we can," Draco agreed as he leant over and attached his lips to Hermione's.

As they were kissing, one of Draco's hands moved up to caress her breasts while the other darted lower, venturing between her legs. Hermione moaned into the kiss and her body arched upwards as Draco's fingers slid through her wet folds, deliberately keeping away from where she ached for his touch.

"You're such a tease," Hermione whimpered as Draco began kissing and sucking at her pulse point.

Draco merely chuckled in response as he continued his slow and steady teasing of Hermione. By the time he kissed and caressed his way down Hermione's body, Hermione was practically panting with need. When Draco's tongue flicked across her drenched womanhood, Hermione practically screamed with pleasure. Burying her hands in his soft hair, she urged him on as he set about bringing her pleasure. When her orgasm finally hit, Hermione arched off the bed and her loud scream would have alerted all her neighbours what was going on had the flat not been magically soundproofed.

Two rounds of oral sex was more than enough to have both Draco and Hermione ready for more. No sooner had she recovered than Hermione brutally connected her lips to Draco's and rubbed herself up against him. They both knew that what would follow would be fast and furious, so neither had any complaints when Draco roughly thrust into Hermione. Setting a rhythm took a few thrusts, before the couple were clawing at each other as their bodies moved in perfect harmony together. The pair were in such perfect harmony that they came almost simultaneously, before collapsing onto the bed wrapped together.

For a while they remained on the bed, before they disentangled themselves so they could head for a shower. Of course showering together led to more sex, but at least they could get washed again and by the time they emerged from the bathroom all traces of their encounter had been erased. After a lingering goodbye, Draco headed off home while Hermione started to think about packing up her life once again. Only this time she was hopefully heading into something worthwhile, maybe with Draco she could find the home she'd been missing for so long.


	13. Chapter 12

Early on Friday afternoon, Blaise appeared at Hermione's flat to help her move her things to his place. Since she was expecting him, Hermione already had her things packed up and ready to go. She'd also given notice on her flat, and just had to leave the keys in the letterbox of the landlord. Her lack of belongings meant that with magic it was fairly easy for Hermione and Blaise to move her things all in one go.

Once at Blaise's luxury flat, he showed Hermione to the spare room and told her to make herself comfortable. Hermione quickly unpacked her things, before finding Blaise and asking if there were any shop's nearby.

"What sort of shops?" Blaise questioned. He didn't know whether Hermione was after something like clothes, or if she was looking to replace something like cosmetics or toiletries.

"I want a good food shop," Hermione answered.

"There's food in the kitchen," Blaise pointed out. "Help yourself to whatever you want."

"I was thinking I might cook something for Draco coming over," Hermione said. "I also thought it could be a bit of a thank you, for letting me stay with you."

"Who am I to argue if a pretty witch wants to cook me a meal?" Blaise grinned. "I'll come with you if you want. There's a shop just around the corner, it's magical but also sells muggle stuff."

"Thanks Blaise." Hermione smiled warmly at Draco's best friend, before heading off to grab her jacket.

The trip to the shop was only a short one as Hermione was lucky enough to find everything she'd wanted. By the time the pair returned to Blaise's flat, he was salivating at the sound of the meal Hermione planned on cooking. After helping Hermione unpack her shopping, Blaise made some coffee and settled at the kitchen table as Hermione started making preparations for her sausage Ragu.

"Are you sure I can't help?" Blaise double checked. He'd already offered his assistance, but he just wanted to be sure that Hermione could manage on her own.

"I'm fine," Hermione said. "I think I can remember how to make this."

"When was the last time you made Ragu?" Blaise asked.

"Just before I obliviated my parents after sixth year."

Blaise choked on his coffee and stared at Hermione in shock. "You obliviated your parents. Why?"

As she carried on cooking, Hermione told Blaise all about her parents. She told him about how she'd tried to keep them safe during the war, and how they now barely spoke to her because of it.

"That's so sad," Blaise said quietly when Hermione finished her explanation. He wasn't overly close to his own mother, but he would hate to think that she barely spoke to him.

"It is what it is," Hermione shrugged.

In the aftermath of what had happened with Ron and the Weasleys, her parent's rejection had just been another thing that had hardened her heart. However, now Draco had gotten her to open herself up again, she knew she would have to deal with her parent's coldness towards her. She couldn't just ignore it and pretend it didn't hurt any more. Just like she couldn't pretended that Harry hadn't broken her heart. It was time to face up to her past, but her parents would have to wait, for now she was going to deal with Harry and the Weasleys.

Sensing Hermione didn't want to talk about her parents any more, Blaise effortlessly changed the subject. After flattering Hermione about how good her food smelt, he then started telling Hermione about his love life. Blaise was still busy regaling Hermione with sordid tales when it was time to put her Ragu in the oven.

"While this is cooking, I'm going to go and get changed," Hermione told Blaise.

"Hurry back, I've still got plenty of stories to tell," Blaise called as Hermione darted out of the kitchen. "Including the time I bedded triplets."

Hermione chuckled at the mention of another of Blaise's risqué tales as she headed for the spare room. She couldn't decide if his love life really was as colourful as he portrayed it as, or if he was just embellishing tamer stories.

As she was getting changed, Hermione heard Draco arrive at the flat. While she couldn't hear the exact conversation he was having with Blaise, she knew the pair had been talking practically non-stop since Draco arrived. Not wanting to be missing out on anything, Hermione quickly finished getting dressed and headed into the front room to greet her lover.

"Hey," Draco smiled at Hermione as he pulled her into his arms and gave her a quick kiss.

"I'm not missing out on anything, am I?" She asked, smiling back at the blond wizard.

"Don't worry, we won't discuss anything until we're all together," Draco reassured her. "But Blaise tells me you've been cooking, so I thought we could eat first."

"That's fine," Hermione said. "Dinner should be another ten minutes or so."

Until dinner was ready the trio made small talk, which mainly revolved around Draco and Blaise's work. Once dinner was ready everyone settled in the kitchen, and Hermione's food won rave reviews from the two former Slytherins. Blaise even polished off a second helping, and joked to Draco that he was never letting Hermione leave his flat again.

After dinner the light-hearted atmosphere evaporated as they settled in the front room to talk seriously. Blaise poured everyone a glass of firewhisky, and he settled in a chair while Hermione curled up next to Draco on the sofa.

"So Hermione was right. Ginny lied to you about being pregnant," Blaise began, deciding to just jump right in with what they wanted to talk about.

"She did," Draco confirmed with a nod. "I've got all the proof at work. She's never been pregnant."

"So what happens now?" Hermione asked.

"How much do you know about divorce in the wizarding world?" Draco questioned his lover.

"Not much," Hermione admitted. "I do know it's pretty rare though."

"It is," Blaise said. "A good portion of marriages include a bonding ceremony that's impossible to break. Even those that don't include the bonding, rarely seek a divorce as it's such a long and tricky thing to achieve."

"Are you trying to tell me that you won't be able to divorce Ginny?" Hermione looked at her lover, wanting the answer to come from him, not Blaise.

"I'm getting a divorce," Draco insisted. "But like Blaise said, it's a tricky thing to achieve. You have to go through several processes at the Ministry to even get the divorce papers drawn up. Once they're drawn up the divorce will definitely happen, it's just a case of how long it takes to go through. If both parties sign the papers, the divorce will go through in a matter of weeks, but if someone refuses to sign it will take three years for the divorce to go through."

"Ginny isn't going to just sign the papers," Hermione sighed despondently.

"It doesn't matter," Draco shrugged. "Once they're drawn up, there's nothing she can do about it. I'll happily wait three years to be rid of her. What we need to do is make sure she doesn't get wind of this before the papers are drawn up."

"Why?" Hermione frowned. "Why can't you just confront her and tell her you're leaving her?"

"Because then she might argue against the divorce," Draco answered. "If she knew what I was planning, she could cause problems. With her fighting my every step, it could take years for the papers to even be drawn up. I could be stuck with her for even longer, and without the papers we would still be considered married. At least if I have the papers and she refuses to sign, we're officially separated. As my wife she has rights, and with a good lawyer she could cause trouble with the business, but as my estranged wife, she has no rights."

"So what's your plan?" Blaise asked. He knew his friend well enough to know that Draco would already have everything planned down to the last detail.

"I'm going to the Manor on Sunday, and I'm going to tell my parents everything. I'm hoping father can help me get the divorce papers drawn up on the quiet," Draco explained. "It might take a while, but once I have the papers I intend to hand them to Ginny in front of her family. We're also going to reveal her part in her brother's death and what she's done to Hermione."

"When you say you're telling your parents everything, does that include telling them about me?" Hermione asked.

"It does," Draco confirmed. "In fact, I was hoping you would come with me and meet them. I understand if you're not ready for that, but I thought it might help if we were both there."

"I'll go with you," Hermione promised. She knew visiting the Manor would be hard, but if she really wanted a future with Draco then she knew she would have to face the place sooner or later.

"That part all makes sense, but I have a question," Blaise said. "How exactly are you planning on exposing Ginny's part in Ron's death and what she did to Hermione? We believe Hermione without question, but the Weasleys aren't going to just take her word for it."

"Blaise is right," Hermione told her lover. "They've believed Ginny's version of events for two years, they're not just going to take my word that Ginny is lying. No-one doubted her then and they're not going to do so now."

"They will when we show them your memories," Draco said.

"That will prove I didn't use Ron as a shield, but they might not be convinced that Ginny threw the curse," Hermione cautioned. "It took me several viewings of the memory to spot her, and even then it's a brief glimpse. It certainly wouldn't be enough to press any charges against her."

"Even if they refuse to believe Ginny threw the curse, they'll still know she lied about your actions," Draco said. "Maybe that knowledge will eat away at someone, and they'll examine the memories closer. Or you never know, she might even break down and confess to what she's done."

"Before we start speculating on what might happen, why don't we view the memories ourselves," Blaise suggested. "It would be better to know what we had to work with."

"That's a good idea," Draco said to his friend, before turning to Hermione. "Are you up for showing us the memories?"

"Yes." Hermione agreed to the request as she mentally steeled herself for reliving Ron's death yet again. At least this time she could point Draco and Blaise in the right direction the first time and that might decrease the amount of times they had to view the memories.

"Do you have the pensieve?" Draco asked Blaise.

"I got one just like you asked," Blaise replied as he got up and headed out of the room to get the new pensieve he'd just bought a few days earlier. Draco had made the request during the week, when he'd first gotten in touch and told him about Ginny and asked about Hermione moving into the spare room.

"Why did you ask Blaise to buy a pensieve?" Hermione asked. "I would have thought your family would have one."

"We do. But ours is at the manor, and it's worth thousands of galleons. The one Blaise bought was only a couple of hundred. I figured we would need it for when we told the Weasleys the truth. I know they don't have a pensieve, and I don't just want to leave the memories and hope they'll look at them. I'm going to make sure that at least one person sees what really happened."

Hermione was rather impressed with Draco's forward thinking. He'd clearly given his plan a lot of thought, and she suspected he'd come up with it even before he had the proof Ginny had lied to him.

When Blaise returned with the pensieve, Hermione extracted her memory from the battle and placed it in the basin. The trio watched the memory swirl around in the pensieve, the courtyard at Hogwarts visible in the flashes of memory that you could see.

"You don't have to come with us," Draco told Hermione as he placed an arm around her shoulders. "Blaise and I can look ourselves."

"No, I need to show you where to look," Hermione stated firmly. "I'm coming."

"Whenever you're ready," Draco told his lover.

Hermione nodded and took a couple of deep breaths, before plunging into the pensieve. Draco and Blaise quickly followed her and within seconds they were all witnessing Hermione's memories of the battle. Trying to ignore the sight of Ron sacrificing himself to save her, Hermione guided the two Slytherins attention towards where Ginny was lying in wait. The first viewing proved fruitless for the pair, they could see that Ginny was obviously lying about Hermione using Ron as a shield, but they failed to spot her beside the wall. On the second viewing both Draco and Blaise spotted a figure with red hair fire the curse towards Hermione, and by the third viewing their attention was in the right spot and they could clearly see it was Ginny that fired the curse that killed her brother.

"This is all going to depend on how determined someone is to get to the truth," Blaise said as Draco pulled a vial from his pocket and placed Hermione's memory safely inside. "A quick viewing proves what happened, and shows that Hermione wasn't to blame. But for the real culprit, you do have to know exactly where to look and you have to be alert."

"I suppose all we can do is wait and see what happens," Hermione said. "At least the Weasleys will know I didn't sacrifice Ron. That's the most important thing."

"Really?" Blaise raised a questioning eyebrow at Hermione. "That doesn't sound like someone who's spent the last six months trying to get revenge on the witch that destroyed your life. Surely the important thing to you, is showing everyone what Ginny is truly like, and watching her life fall apart."

"A few months ago, that's all I wanted," Hermione admitted. "But my heart has other ideas. Now all I want is for this to be over, so we can move on. I want to start living again, especially now I've got something to live for."

Blaise smiled to himself at the tender look Hermione and Draco shared at her admission. He just hoped that everything went well for the couple and that Draco could manage to get things sorted with Ginny. The pair deserved some happiness, and he knew that if things went as planned they would get a chance to find it together.


	14. Chapter 13

When Draco arrived at Blaise's flat to pick Hermione up so they could go and visit his parents, Hermione had already been changed several times. The spare room of Blaise's flat was a mess as discarded clothes were strewn across the room. Hermione had spent hours trying to pick the perfect outfit, and even though she'd settled on a deep red skirt and a white top with little red hearts on, she still wasn't totally convinced it was the right outfit. But then again she had no idea what the right outfit for meeting your married lover's parents was. Their situation was hardly a normal one.

"Stop panicking," Draco told Hermione, when she suggested she might go and change yet another time. "You look great. I highly doubt my parents are going to be worrying about what you're wearing, not with what we've got to tell them."

"True," Hermione nodded. "They're going to hate me no matter what I wear, aren't they?"

"Hate's a strong word," Draco said to his lover. "I can't imagine they'll be too impressed at first, but in time they'll come round."

"Have they come round to Ginny?" Hermione questioned.

"No," Draco admitted. "My parents don't like her, but that has nothing to do with how they'll react to you."

"Sure it does," Hermione replied with a sigh. "If they can't come to like Ginny, who's a pureblood, they're never going to like me because I'm a muggleborn."

"It won't work like that," Draco reassured his lover. "They don't like Ginny for a few reasons. Firstly because she's a Weasley, but mainly because she doesn't make me happy. I'm sure that if I was genuinely happy with her and loved her that my parents would have made a bigger effort to get to know her. They'll make that effort with you, because I really want to be with you."

"You hope," Hermione muttered.

"Have you two not left yet?" Blaise asked as he entered the front room where the couple were standing talking.

"We're going now," Draco told his friend.

"Good luck," Blaise said as he settled down on the sofa.

"Thanks, I think we're going to need it," Hermione replied.

"It won't be that bad," Draco told Hermione as he took hold of her hand. "You have to think positively."

Hermione nodded and took a deep breath to clear her head. Draco was right, she needed to approach the afternoon in a positive manner. If she went to the manor feeling negative then things would only turn out that way, she had to go with the best intentions and just hope that things would go well with Draco's parents.

Once Hermione was ready, Draco pulled out his wand and apparated the pair of them to the manor. Because he had Hermione with him, he couldn't apparate directly into the house so he arrived in the vast grounds of his childhood home. Draco had landed them almost directly in front of the large entrance and he gave Hermione a few moments to gather herself before he led her towards the manor and pushed open the doors.

Hermione followed Draco into the manor, and immediately she could see the difference from last time she'd been there. During the war the place had been dark and foreboding, but now it was light and welcoming. If she didn't know where she was Hermione would have sworn that she wasn't in the same place that Bellatrix had tortured her.

"You don't have to worry about being in that room," Draco said quietly. "Mother sealed off a lot of the rooms that were used during the war, and that room was one of them. Eventually my parents are planning on remodelling a section of the manor, but for now it's just closed off."

Hermione breathed a huge sigh of relief that she wouldn't be entering the room where she'd been tortured. Hopefully by visiting a different room in the manor, she'd be able to shake her bad memories of the place. Maybe even in time she could create some new happier memories in Draco's childhood home. It was clear from the way Draco spoke about the manor that he loved the place, and Hermione didn't want to be the reason he didn't visit his home as often as he wanted.

Making sure to keep a tight hold of Hermione's hand, Draco led her through the labyrinth of corridors, until they reached the large living room his parents preferred. Draco wasn't sure he would find his parents in residence in the room, but it was the most likely place to look for them and if for some reason they weren't there he could always call for one of the elves and send for his parents. Luckily sending for his parents wasn't an issue as when Draco pushed open the door he found both his mother and father seated in the living room.

"Draco," Narcissa beamed widely at the unexpected sight of her son.

"Mother," Draco smiled back at his mother as she rose from her seat and made her way over to him.

"You've brought a guest," Narcissa remarked, suddenly spotting Hermione.

"I have," Draco nodded. "Mother, Father, I want you to meet Hermione Granger."

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs Malfoy," Hermione said, offering her hand to the witch who was looking at her curiously.

"Likewise," Narcissa said, taking Hermione's hand and giving it a quick shake.

"Do we get an explanation for Miss Granger's presence?" Lucius asked his son as he rose from his seat and joined his wife in standing opposite Draco and Hermione.

"She's my lover," Draco announced, deciding to get the hardest bit over with first.

Hermione lowered her head at Draco's honesty, while Narcissa let out a surprised gasp. Lucius meanwhile just glared at his son, silently demanding an explanation. Both Lucius and Narcissa knew Draco didn't love his wife and wouldn't have married her if he hadn't had to, but cheating still wasn't something either of them condoned.

"I know we shouldn't have had an affair, but we have and you can't change what's done," Draco told his parents.

"No you can't, but you can make amends," Lucius retorted. "You can end this now, and do the right thing by your wife."

"For once I'm going to do the right thing by me," Draco said. "I love Hermione and I intend to be with her. I'm going to divorce Ginny, and when I tell you the full story I'm sure you'll be backing my decision."

"The full story," Lucius repeated with a frown. "What exactly is going on Draco?"

"Why don't we sit down and I'll tell you everything," Draco suggested.

Lucius nodded and taking hold of Narcissa's arm he led her back to one of the sofas across the room. Once Narcissa was seated, Lucius settled down next to her and indicated for Draco and Hermione to take the sofa opposite them. Once Draco and Hermione were settled, Draco took a deep breath before beginning his tale.

"I guess we should start with Hermione's story," Draco said, glancing at his lover and receiving a nod of confirmation that it was okay for him to tell what happened in the war.

With the odd bit of help from Hermione, Draco explained about Ron saving Hermione's life, and the events that followed it. He then explained about her run in with Harry over a year later and her discovery of what had really happened the day her best friend died.

"Are you telling us that Ginny killed her own brother, and lied to cover it up?" Lucius checked.

"Yes," Hermione nodded.

"I've seen the memories, and it's true," Draco added.

Narcissa shook her head sadly. "What a horrible person." She felt terribly sorry for Hermione and what she'd gone through. "No wonder you want to divorce her."

"The fact she killed her brother is certainly one good reason to divorce her, but I've got another one," Draco said. "She lied about being pregnant."

"What?" Narcissa looked at Draco in disbelief. "But she lost the baby, we all grieved for the loss."

"There was no baby to lose," Draco told his parents. "I've got the proof that she wasn't even pregnant when we got married, she's never been pregnant in her life."

As Lucius asked more questions, Draco explained about what he thought the reason behind Ginny's lies were. Lucius nodded along with his son, fully agreeing with Draco's thinking. It would seem the redheaded witch had well and truly played them, and they'd given her exactly what she wanted.

"So now we're all sorted about what sort of person your wife is, would you care to explain about your mistress," Lucius said to Draco. "How did you two even became involved?"

Draco opened his mouth to answer, but Hermione put a hand on her lover's arm and shook her head. "I'll tell the story. Your parents deserve to know the truth."

As hard as it was to tell yet again, Hermione told Lucius and Narcissa all about her plan for vengeance. From her story it was perfectly clear that she'd set out to use Draco, but it was also clear that in the end she'd ended up falling in love with him.

"I can't say I like the fact you were using my son, but I can see that you truly love him," Narcissa told the younger witch. "I can also see that he loves you."

"And I suppose we have to admire your Slytherin side," Lucius added with a slight smirk. "In essence your plan for revenge was perfect. If you and Draco hadn't fallen for each other, it would have been the perfect way to wreck Ginny's life."

"Her life isn't exactly going to be rosy when I'm finished with her," Draco vowed. "Her whole family is going to discover what a lying cow she is."

"I take it you have a plan to get the divorce papers through without her knowing," Lucius said. "If she knows what you're doing, she'll cause problems. Especially given the lies she told just to get you to marry her."

"I don't plan on telling her anything until the papers are in my hands," Draco replied. "I was hoping you might be able to help me get things done quickly and quietly."

"Considering we pushed you into this marriage it's the least I can do," Lucius told his son. "I'll make some enquires, and we'll get this divorce through as quickly as possible."

"Thanks," Draco replied with a smile. "But please don't blame yourselves for pushing me into marrying Ginny. Even without you, I would have offered to marry her when I thought she was pregnant. The only person to blame here is Ginny, she's the liar."

"Even so, we can't help but feel guilty," Narcissa sighed. "Maybe if we hadn't pushed so much the wedding would have been later and her lies would have been discovered."

"It was Ginny who insisted on getting married as quickly as possible," Draco pointed out. "And considering I thought she was pregnant and I would have to marry her anyway, I was happy to get it over with. Besides, it hasn't all been bad. If I hadn't been married to Ginny, I never would have gotten involved with Hermione, and I wouldn't swap Hermione for anything."

"You really do love her, don't you?" Narcissa remarked, smiling at the way Draco looked at Hermione with such adoration.

"I do," Draco replied, smiling at his lover. "And I would really like it if you two gave her a chance," He said, turning back to his parents. "I know the fact she's a muggleborn is going to be hard for you to accept, but it's what I want. I want to be with Hermione, she makes me happy."

"You're right, the fact she's a muggleborn is hard to accept," Lucius said. "But we will accept it. This whole mess with Ginny proves that we shouldn't interfere in your love life. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but we're willing to try."

"That's all I ask," Draco beamed at his parents. "Thank you."

"Now, I think we ought to discuss getting rid of Ginny," Lucius said, changing the subject before things got too emotional. He didn't mind trying to accept Draco's new witch, but he wasn't ready for outpouring of feelings. "Have you thought about what happens once you hand the papers over? What if she doesn't sign them?"

"Then we wait the three years it takes for the divorce to come through," Draco shrugged. "It's not ideal, but it's better than remaining married to her."

"And what are you going to do about living arrangements?" Narcissa asked. "I highly doubt you're going to move Hermione into the house with you and Ginny."

"I'm moving out, I'm not staying there," Draco replied.

"Neither is she. I'm not accommodating the tramp that tricked my son into marriage," Lucius sneered.

"What do you mean, you're not accommodating her?" Narcissa asked her husband. "We gave the house to Draco and Ginny as a wedding present, the house is half hers."

"Actually it isn't," Lucius smirked. "The house is still in my name. I fully intended to sign it over to Draco, but once she lost the baby I just kept putting off. I think that deep down I always thought it would end up like this, and I'm not having her getting her grubby hands on our properties and money."

"After I've give her the divorce papers, I'll let her know she needs to vacate the house," Draco said. "You can then do what you like with it."

"Do you not want it?" Lucius asked. "Once she's gone, I can sign the place over to you."

"We want a fresh start," Draco replied as he took hold of Hermione's hand. "I was thinking that after we confronted Ginny, we might go away for a while."

"You're leaving?" Narcissa gasped.

"More like an extended holiday," Draco told his mother. "Providing that's okay with you," He said, turning to Hermione.

"I'd like that," Hermione smiled. "It'll give me a chance to sort out what I want to do with my life. I want to sort my life out, and put Ginny Weasley behind me."

"Don't we all," Lucius chuckled. "I suggest we drink to getting the redheaded witch out of our lives for good."

Lucius got up and went over to the liquor cabinet in the corner where he returned with four glasses and a bottle of expensive elf made wine. Pouring the wine into the glasses he handed them around and they all drank to getting rid of Ginny. If all went to plan she'd soon be out of their lives for good, and Draco and Hermione could get on with living their life together.


	15. Chapter 14

It took well over a month for the divorce papers to be drawn up, and by the time they were ready, Draco was more than ready to kiss goodbye to his marriage. The process had been so slow partly because it was a complicated process anyway, but mainly because of the secrecy involved. Lucius had introduced Draco to a wizard who could get him the papers drawn up, but a lot of secrecy was needed to ensure no-one found out what was going on. It wasn't wise for Draco to be seen around the Ministry too often so whenever there were papers he had to sign, an arrangement was made to for the wizard helping him to visit his father's office, where Draco would be waiting to sign the papers. Then of course there was the fact that Ginny's father and one of her brothers worked at the Ministry, not to mention Harry. If any of them had heard a whisper of what was going on they could have told Ginny, causing all sorts of chaos.

Luckily everything went according to plan, and after six weeks of waiting patiently Draco had the forms in his possession. Now all he had to do was give them to Ginny, and his plan to do just that was in motion. He was currently watching Ginny getting ready to go to her parents' house. Once Ginny was gone, Blaise was going to come over and help him pack his things, before he and Hermione headed to The Burrow to confront Ginny and reveal her lies to everyone.

"I'm off," Ginny announced. "I'll see you later."

Draco grunted a goodbye as his wife pecked him on the cheek and flooed to her childhood home. Once he was sure Ginny had gone and wasn't going to come back, Draco made a quick floo call to Blaise and within five minutes his best friend was standing in the front room. It had already been decided that Hermione wouldn't come and help with the packing as she wasn't comfortable with being in the house Draco shared with Ginny.

"So, where do you want me to start?" Blaise asked once the pair had exchanged greetings and Draco had checked Hermione was alright.

"Could you do the bedroom and bathroom?" Draco asked. It was far easier for Blaise to grab his stuff from those rooms, while he dealt with the rest of the house.

"Yeah," Blaise replied, and headed off to make a start on gathering his best friend's belongings.

Draco started in the study, quickly packing his personal effects into boxes enlarged by magic. Stacking the boxes up near the door, he then gathered all the furniture into the centre of the room. Once everything was neatly stacked together he sprinkled a potion over the furniture and cast a complex spell that would transfer it to one of the rooms at the manor. While Blaise was going to keep his personal affects, Draco had decided it was easier to store the furniture at the manor. His friend was doing more than enough for them, without asking him to store bulky furniture as well.

Leaving the study behind, Draco gathered his belongings from the other rooms. After an hour he had a large pile of boxes stacked beside the fire, some of which he'd packed and some of which Blaise had sent down from upstairs. Once Blaise had finished, he headed back downstairs and started transferring the boxes back to his place while Draco double checked he hadn't left anything.

As he was checking the house, Draco cast several spells to ensure that Ginny didn't take anything that didn't belong to her. Draco had always been generous with Ginny and ensured she'd had plenty of money at her disposal, so she did have a lot of possessions. Anything she'd bought with that money would remain untouched by the spell, but anything bought using money directly from the Malfoy bank vault was technically the property of the head of the family, which would be Lucius. Draco and Ginny had actually furnished the whole house using money directly from the family vault, and as a Malfoy she'd had access to the vault and could have purchased other things at any time. Draco knew Ginny would likely kick up a fuss about the spell, but the stuff she'd bought with the money he'd given her was worth a small fortune, and in his opinion she should be grateful he'd decided to allow her to keep anything at all. It was well within his rights to turn round and say she couldn't have anything more than what she entered the marriage with, which was very little.

Once Draco was sure Ginny couldn't remove anything from the house that wasn't hers, he headed back to the front room to help Blaise with the last of the boxes. After a few trips everything was at Blaise's house and Draco left the house he'd shared with Ginny for the last time without looking back. As nice as the place was, Draco wasn't at all sad to be leaving it behind. The house had basically been somewhere he lived, it certainly hadn't felt like home.

"So what's the plan now?" Blaise asked, once all of Draco's stuff was packed into the spare room.

"Hermione and I gather everything we need, and we go and expose Ginny's lies," Draco said. Turning to his lover, he noticed the anxiousness in her eyes. "Are you ready for this, or do you want to change your mind? I can go and give Ginny the divorce papers, and leave you out of it."

"No." Hermione shook her head stubbornly. She may have been nervous about facing the Weasley's again, but it was time to clear her name. "Let's do this."

Draco nodded and set about ensuring they had everything. In a file he had the divorce papers for Ginny to sign, and her medical records proving she lied about being pregnant. He also made sure he had the vial of Hermione's memories, and he shrunk the pensieve Blaise had bought down to toy size and placed it in his pocket. A quick reversal charm at The Burrow would restore it to normality and it would be ready to use.

"Are you ready?" Draco asked Hermione, holding out his hand for her to take hold of.

"As I'll ever be," Hermione replied, taking hold of her lover's hand.

"Good luck," Blaise called as the couple vanished out of sight with a sharp pop.

Draco and Hermione reappeared just outside of The Burrow's back garden, and Hermione paused for a few minutes to collect her thoughts. Looking up at the unique building, she was hit with dozens of happy memories. At one time she'd felt completely at home in the Weasleys home, but now she knew her presence wouldn't be welcomed.

"Come on, let's get this over with," Hermione said, brushing aside her memories and steeling herself for what was to come.

Draco pushed open the back gate and led the way through the Weasleys back garden. At the back door, he checked Hermione was ready before knocking firmly on the wooden door. Despite visiting The Burrow a few times, Draco would never dream of just entering the house. He only ever visited when he was asked, which was once in a blue moon, and most certainly didn't feel comfortable enough to just waltz straight into his parents-in-law's house.

After a short wait the back door was pulled open and the couple were confronted with Arthur. Arthur looked rather surprised to find Draco on the doorstep, but his surprise turned to outrage when he spotted Hermione standing beside his son-in-law.

"What's going on?" Arthur demanded. "What are you doing here?" He asked Hermione.

"We've got something very important to discuss with the family," Draco replied.

"We've got nothing to discuss with her," Arthur spat, glaring at Hermione. "She tore our family apart."

"Please Arthur, just let me explain," Hermione pleaded with the wizard.

"You can't explain what you did, Hermione," Arthur said. "What you did was unforgivable."

"You have no idea what she did. Or more accurately, what she didn't do," Draco said sharply. "But if you let us in we can make sure everyone knows the truth."

"Molly will kill me for letting you into the house," Arthur said to Hermione.

"Then don't," Hermione shrugged. "I'll wait out here and Draco can show you the truth. He has other business to deal with as well, so he can just handle both together."

"No," Draco said with a shake of his head. "Hermione is coming in with me. We're both going to talk to the family."

"Just what exactly is going on between you two?" Arthur questioned, looking between the pair suspiciously before focusing his attention on Draco. "I swear, if you're cheating on my daughter there'll be hell to pay."

"I would get all the facts before judging if I were you," Draco told his father-in-law. "Your precious daughter isn't as innocent as she makes out."

"So you are cheating on her," Arthur growled.

"Now really isn't the time for this," Hermione interrupted. "We have more important things to discuss."

"I don't think so," Arthur said. "I am not letting the pair of you inside to flaunt the fact you're carrying on behind Ginny's back. The pair of you are awful, despicable people."

"Funny, that's exactly how I would describe Ginny," Draco retorted. "Especially if you add lying, manipulative and killer to the mix."

"Killer?" Arthur frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"You'll find out," Draco said, taking hold of Hermione's hand and barrelling past Arthur. His patience was wearing thin and he couldn't be bothered to argue with the redheaded wizard any longer.

Arthur stuttered in shock as Draco and Hermione marched into the house and made their way towards the front room. Coming to his senses he quickly shut the back door and chased after them. Arthur caught up to the pair as Draco swung open the door to the front room, causing everyone to fall silent as they turned to see what was going on. The silence lasted all of a minute, before there were shouts and accusations being thrown around at Hermione's presence.

"Shut the hell up, all of you," Draco hollered, drawing his wand and shooting red sparks into the air accompanied with a loud bang.

"What are you playing at, Draco?" Ginny questioned her husband as the noise died down and everyone glared at the couple standing in the doorway.

"We've came to have a nice, friendly talk," Draco replied with a smirk.

"With her?" Molly sneered at Hermione. "I think not, she's not welcome in my house."

"You have to get her to leave, Draco," Ginny said. "You don't know what went on."

"Oh but I do," Draco replied. "I know that you told people Hermione used Ron as a shield to save herself during the final battle."

"You knew what she did, and yet you still brought her here?" Harry asked in disbelief. "Even I didn't think you were that malicious, Malfoy."

"I'm not," Draco said. "If Hermione had done that, I wouldn't have brought her here. But the suggestion that she would sacrifice her best friend to save herself is ludicrous."

"Ginny saw the entire thing," Molly insisted. "She saw that bitch murder my son."

"Did she now?" Draco raised an eyebrow as he pulled the pensieve from his pocket and returned it to normal size. He then placed it on the coffee table and poured in Hermione's memories. "Why don't you take a look at what really happened?"

"Whose memories are those?" Fred asked.

"Mine," Hermione answered, speaking for the first time since entering the house. "That is what really happened when Ron died."

"Don't listen to her," Ginny shouted. "She's clearly modified them to show herself in a better light."

"Potter, you're an Auror, you should know what modified memories look like," Draco said, turning to Harry. "Take a look and tell us if they're genuine."

"Harry, you don't have to do this," Arthur said, moving fully into the room as Harry stepped forward so he was standing at the side of the coffee table.

"Yes, I do," Harry said, looking between Ginny and Hermione.

Hermione was standing in the doorway, partially hidden behind Draco, and she looked as calm and composed as anything. If she had modified her memories, she was confident that it was good enough to fool a fully trained Auror. Ginny meanwhile was looking nervous, and she was still insisting that Hermione had altered her memories somehow.

Without further ado, Harry leant over the pensieve and plunged into Hermione's memories. A few minutes later he emerged, looking distressed. Shutting his eyes, he took a few moments to compose himself after witnessing the death of his best friend.

"Was it bad?" George asked.

Harry nodded. "It also showed that Hermione was telling the truth. She didn't sacrifice Ron to save herself, he selflessly saved her life."

"Could the memories be fakes?" Arthur asked.

"If they're fakes, they're very good fakes," Harry replied. "I'd need to take them into the Ministry to analyse them further, but I'd say the memories are genuine."

"Of course they're genuine," Draco stated. "And now you know that Ginny lied."

"Why, Ginny?" Molly turned to her daughter, who had sank down on the sofa, a look of resignation on her face.

"I wanted rid of Hermione," Ginny admitted quietly. "She stole what was mine," She added more forcefully as she looked up and glared at the brunette witch. "Harry was mine, and you stole him. He loved me, until you got your claws into him."

"I can understand you being angry and jealous, but why the horrid lie?" Harry asked. "Why did you make us believe Hermione had sacrificed Ron to save herself?"

"I wasn't even sure if that would work," Ginny confessed. "I saw the entire thing, and decided to cause a bit of trouble. I never expected everyone to believe me so willingly. You were all so quick to think the worst of Hermione."

"We were grieving," Fred argued. "We'd just lost our brother and weren't thinking clearly."

"But yet none of you argued against what I was telling you," Ginny remarked. "There was a bit of hesitance at first, but you still all believed me. And it's not as if you've looked for Hermione since then and gotten her side of the story. Everyone was all too happy to let her disappear from our lives, and I think that says an awful lot about the way people truly feel about her."

Ginny's remarks hung in the air, as everyone digested them and reluctantly admitted she was right. As much as the Weasleys could blame their grief for believing Ginny, none of them had questioned things once they'd gotten over the shock. Not one of them had thought about what Ginny had told them and decided that Hermione wouldn't do what she was being accused of. Everyone was all too happy to believe Ginny's version of events, and move on with their lives without Hermione around.

"Now we've established my wife is a liar, I think we can move on to the second reason we're here today," Draco announced, breaking the silence that had fallen.

"Haven't you already done enough?" Ginny asked her husband. "Wasn't it enough that you've tracked down the one person no-one wanted to see and brought her into our home to ruin our day."

"I rather think it's you that's ruined the day," Draco retorted. "If you hadn't lied about Hermione, I never would have discovered what else you lied about. When someone can lie about their own brother's death, it makes you wonder what else they can lie about."

"What are you going on about, Malfoy?" Harry snapped. "We've got more important things to worry about than whatever white lies Ginny has told you."

"I wouldn't call claiming to be pregnant a white lie," Draco responded.

"No," Ginny whispered as all the colour drained from her face.

"What are you on about?" Arthur questioned.

"I'm on about Ginny lying and telling everyone she was pregnant so I would marry her," Draco answered, pulling Ginny's medical records from his jacket pocket and handing them to Harry, who was the closest person to him. "There's the proof. Read her medical notes and you'll discover she was never pregnant. There never was a baby, and there certainly wasn't any miscarriage."

Harry quickly read the medical notes, before passing them onto Arthur, who read them with his wife. While the rest of the family checked out the notes a devastated Molly once again turned to her youngest child.

"What have you being playing at Ginny?" Molly asked on the verge of tears. "What's going on with all the lies? I thought I'd raised you to be an honest person, not the deceitful witch I'm learning you really are."

"I had to," Ginny muttered. "I was going to lose him, just like I'd lost Harry."

"Well, you've lost me now. I've filed for divorce, here's the papers," Draco told his wife, pulling out the divorce papers and throwing them down on the coffee table.

"This is all your fault, you bitch," Ginny snarled jumping up and stalking over to Hermione. "You're sleeping with him, aren't you? You've stolen my husband."

"You can't steal something that goes willingly," Draco told his wife, grabbing hold of her hand when she raised it to strike Hermione. "Touch her, and I'll kill you," He warned darkly.

"You bastard," Ginny hissed. "You have the cheek to file for divorce, when all the time you've been shagging Hermione."

"Hermione and I both know that we're not innocent in all of this. But from where I'm standing an affair is a darn sight better than the lies you've been telling. Our whole marriage is based on a lie. You knew I never would have married you if you weren't pregnant. Hell, everyone knows the baby was the only reason we got married."

"That's not true," Ginny whispered. "We were happy. I may have lied about the baby, but we were still happy together."

"No, we weren't," Draco stated. "I was never happy, and now I'm going. You have a month to move out of the house."

"You're kicking me out of my own house?" Ginny looked at Draco in genuine confusion. "You can't do that."

"Actually I can. Well technically father can, it's his house," Draco replied.

"I won't go," Ginny insisted stubbornly. "And I won't sign any blasted divorce papers."

"Suit yourself about the papers. The papers have already been filed at the Ministry. It might take three years, but it will come through. I can wait," Draco replied without concern. "As for the house, you can sort it out with father. But we both know he'll win that battle."

"And what about you?" Harry asked the blond wizard. "Where are you going? Are you just going to dump all this on us and disappear into thin air?"

"Where I'm going is none of your business, Potter," Draco answered. "Although before we go, I do have one more thing I want to say. If you really want the truth about what happened to Ron, take a really good look at Hermione's memory. Work out where the curse comes from, and if you really look you'll find the person who threw it."

While most of the Weasleys exchanged puzzled looks at Draco's cryptic advice, Ginny shot a horrified look at her husband and former friend. Draco smirked at his wife's horror while Hermione just shook her head sadly at Ginny. While Hermione felt absolutely no sympathy towards Ginny, she did feel for her family. If the Weasleys investigated her memories properly they would discover the truth, and she did feel bad about what they would discover. However Ginny had brought the entire thing on herself, and in Hermione's opinion she deserved everything she got.

* * *

><p><strong>AN - We've got more Weasleys and Harry reaction in the next chapter. **


	16. Chapter 15

The Weasleys were still coming to terms with everything they had learnt when Draco and Hermione departed the house. Ginny immediately went to follow after her husband and his lover, but Arthur placed a hand on his daughters arm, halting her progress.

"On no you don't, young lady," Arthur said. "You're going to sit down and explain things to us."

"What's to explain?" Ginny questioned."You now all know the lies I've told to get my own way."

The last thing she wanted to do was stay and talk to her family when Hermione had just waltzed out of the house with her husband. What she needed to be doing was going after them and trying to get Draco to see sense and stop all this divorce nonsense.

"We want a proper explanation," Molly demanded. "You will sit down and answer our questions."

"What about Hermione's memories?" George asked his mother. "Draco told us to investigate them to find the truth about who killed Ron. Are we going to do that?"

"We can do that in a while," Molly said. "The pensieve and memories are still here and I doubt Draco's going to return for them. But for now, I think Ginny owes us all an explanation."

"I really don't know what else to say," Ginny said as Arthur sat her back down in the chair. She really wanted to get away before anyone tried to examine Hermione's memories closer, but she knew she owed her family an explanation.

"Start with why you told such a terrible lie about Hermione," Molly told her daughter. "Because of your lie, we abandoned her. We cast her aside when she was grieving for Ron like the rest of us."

"I stick by what I said earlier, I didn't force you to believe me and abandon Hermione," Ginny retorted. "I was just hoping that would happen."

"Was I really worth all the misery you caused?" Harry questioned. "I can't believe you would lie about how Ron died, just to try and get Hermione away from me. How could you taint Ron's memory like that? He should have been remembered as a hero who sacrificed himself for someone he loved."

"I was upset. I wasn't thinking clearly," Ginny said, trying to defend her actions. "I saw Ron save Hermione just before I was injured and knocked out myself. When I came round and was told he was dead, I was upset. I was angry at Hermione, both for stealing Harry from me and surviving when Ron didn't. I told the lie before I even knew what was happening, and once I said it I couldn't take it back. I saw that it was going to drive her out of our lives, and I happily let it happen."

"And what about Draco?" Arthur asked. "What on earth made you lie about a baby?"

"He was going to leave me," Ginny replied quietly. "After Hermione was gone I expected Harry to come back to me, but he didn't. Then I got involved with Draco, and I realised I didn't need Harry to be happy. I was going to tell Draco I loved him when he announced he was going travelling, and it was clear I wasn't included in his plans."

"So you lied to him," Percy spoke up for the first time as he shook his head in disgust at his little sister's actions.

"I didn't mean to. I went to see him a few days later with the intention of begging him to let me go with him, but before I knew it I was telling him I was pregnant," Ginny said, dropping her head so she didn't have to face the scathing looks her family were aiming in her direction.

"Yet you still went through with the wedding and faked a miscarriage," Bill snorted. "Why did you go through with marrying him?"

"I love him," Ginny replied. "Once the idea of marriage was mentioned I knew that's what I wanted more than anything. I felt bad for lying, but we were happy together. I know what Draco said, but we were happy before Hermione came on the scene. If she hadn't seduced him and stirred the pot we would have been happy together. We were even going to try for another baby."

"What do you mean, another baby?" George questioned. "There never was a baby in the first place, so you can't have been trying for another one."

Ginny opened her mouth to respond, before shutting it again when she realised she had nothing to say that could counteract George's statement. Her brother was completely right, they hadn't been going to try for another baby, it would have been the first baby they would have conceived.

"I just don't know what to say," Molly sighed, shaking her head. "I'm totally appalled by all of this. I know Draco and Hermione were in the wrong for having an affair, but I can't blame them for hating you Ginny. Considering the lie you told Draco, the fact he wants a divorce is understandable."

"Well he's not getting one," Ginny insisted. "I'm not stepping aside to let that bitch take my place once again. Hermione is going to have a fight on her hands to get my husband."

"You can't argue with proceedings, Ginny," Arthur told his daughter. "Not now the forms have been issued. It would have been different if the divorce hadn't been entered through the Ministry's records, but now it has, it'll be granted. All you can do is hold things up, you can't stop it."

"We'll see about that," Ginny muttered. "I bet when he was filing for divorce my husband failed to mention he was having an affair. Once I expose Draco for the cheat he is, the divorce will be put on hold and I'll fight tooth and nail to hold onto him."

"Why would you want someone who's being cheating on you?" Percy asked with a frown. "Have some dignity, and let him go."

"No," Ginny replied stubbornly as she shook her head. "I'm not letting her have him. Draco's mine."

"That's still what this is all about, isn't it?" Harry questioned. "You're not bothered about keeping Draco, you just don't want Hermione to have him. You're so jealous of her that you'll do anything to make sure she isn't happy."

"She can be happy elsewhere," Ginny retorted. "But she needs to learn to keep her hands of my men. First she stole you, and now she's stolen Draco. I won't stand for it."

"You're not right in the head," Fred muttered to his sister, before turning to his mother. "Now we've heard Ginny's crazy excuses, can we discuss what Draco said about Ron's killer? I don't know about anyone else, but I'm more interested in finding out who killed my brother rather than listen to my sister try and defend her lies."

"I guess the most logical thing to do is keep viewing the memories to see what we can discover," Harry remarked.

"If you're going to poke around in Hermione's memories, I'm off," Ginny announced as she stood up. "I've got things to sort out."

"Are you not interested in finding out who killed your brother?" Molly questioned her daughter.

"It'll just be some Death Eater," Ginny shrugged. "It's not as if we'll be able to identify them."

"If that was the case, why would Draco tell us about it?" Bill asked. "I think you must be able to work out who the killer is."

"Good luck trying," Ginny said, once again turning to head out of the door.

"Ginny, sit down," Arthur ordered his daughter. "You're still a part of this family, despite your lies, and you will be here when we discover the truth about your brother's death."

Ginny reluctantly returned to her seat, hoping that nothing would come from the investigation into Hermione's memories. She'd always thought that Hermione didn't know what had truly happened the day Ron died, but her husband's parting words had left her in no doubt that both Hermione and Draco knew exactly who had fired the curse that had killed Ron. Ginny was just hoping that finding proof of her guilt in the memories was too difficult.

Terrified of what would be discovered, Ginny felt helpless as discussions got underway about the best way to approach things. After a lengthy discussion it was decided that Harry and Bill would view the memory, and they would keep viewing it until they either found something or decided there was nothing to find. As her eldest brother and ex-boyfriend emerged into the memory, Ginny began to form a plan to ensure her involvement in Ron's death was kept a secret. She highly doubted anything could be found on the first viewing, so she wasn't too concerned as she waited for Bill and Harry to return back to the front room.

When the duo did return they announced they had located the direction where the spell was fired from and now they knew where to look as they returned to the memory. With all the attention on Bill and Harry, no-one noticed as Ginny sneakily got her wand out and slid it down beside her leg. Pointing it as the pensieve she waited until someone moved closer to the table before firing a spell at the pensive, sending it crashing to the floor. The pensieve cracked open as it fell and Hermione's memory trickled out onto the floor, creating a silver puddle. Harry quickly set about scooping the memory up and putting it in an empty jar he summoned from the kitchen.

"Are the memories still salvageable?" Arthur asked Harry.

"I don't know," Harry admitted. Peering into the jar the memories looked more grey than silver and he suspected that even if they had another pensieve the memories would no longer be clear enough to be of any use to them.

"What do we do now?" Fred asked. "Do we find Hermione and ask her for another set of her memories?"

"Maybe we should take this as a sign," Molly sighed. "Whatever we find out isn't going to bring Ron back. Maybe we should just move on and leave the past behind us."

Ginny breathed a silent sigh of relief as her family nodded in agreement with her mother. Her family had discovered enough bad things about her today without finding out she'd accidentally killed her own brother. Somehow Ginny suspected that even telling the truth, that she'd been aiming for Hermione and Ron got in the way, wouldn't appease their anger. Either way she'd set out to kill, it was just horrifying for her that she'd accidentally killed her own brother.

With the decision made that they would leave the past where it belonged, Ginny excused herself and headed home. Now that she wasn't worried about her family discovering her other dark secret, she could concentrate on finding a way to stop the divorce. She liked being Mrs Malfoy and she no intention of giving up the cushy lifestyle she had without a fight.

When Ginny arrived home she could instantly tell that Draco had already moved his stuff out of the house. There were several bits and pieces missing from the front room, and when she went to where his study was located she found a bare room. Upstairs was the same, with all traces of her husband having being removed from the house. The only indication he'd ever been there was the wedding picture that hung on the wall in the front room.

Sighing sadly, Ginny headed into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of wine. She then headed into the front room and settled down on the sofa to think. First thing she had to do was find herself a decent lawyer and discover what her rights were. It hardly seemed fair that she could be kicked out of her marital home by her father-in-law, especially as he'd gifted the house to her and Draco as a wedding present.

Ginny was still mulling over her situation half an hour later when the floo network lit up and Lucius stepped from the flames. Ginny glared at her father-in-law as he casually stepped from the fire and brushed a few tiny specks of soot from his shoulders. She hated the fact that he'd just entered the house without any warning, but she wasn't quite sure how to adjust the floo settings to block his presence.

"I have to admit, I didn't expect to find you just lounging around as though nothing had happened," Lucius remarked, not bothering to greet his soon to be ex daughter-in-law. "I thought you would be making alternative accommodation arrangements."

"I'm not going anywhere," Ginny replied. "This is my home, and you can't force me out."

"This is my house, and it's my decision who lives in it," Lucius retorted. "I was quite happy to let you reside here while you were married to Draco, but now you're separated, you can leave."

"Firstly, you can't kick me out because you gave the house to Draco and I when we were married," Ginny told her father-in-law. "And secondly, I fully intend on fighting the divorce."

"I said I was giving you the house, but I never actually transferred the property over to you two. Meaning, it is still mine," Lucius informed a shocked Ginny. "And as for the divorce, it's too late to argue. The Ministry have accepted it, and now all we have to do is wait for it to go through."

"It won't go through once I reveal Draco's being cheating on me," Ginny said. "I'm not taking all the blame for this marriage going wrong."

"I take it you haven't read the divorce papers," Lucius chuckled. "Draco acknowledged his affair, but since your lies and deception predated the affair the main portion of the blame is squarely on you. Now if you'll excuse me, I must be getting home to Narcissa. I just wanted to drop round and warn you that time is ticking. Exactly one month from today, I'll be back and you will be thrown out on your ear if you haven't already left. If I were you, I'd leave with dignity."

"And if I were you, I'd leave before I hex you," Ginny snarled.

Lucius chuckled again in response as he turned back towards the fire and picked up some floo powder. "One month," He reminded Ginny, before stepping into the emerald flames and disappearing.

Ginny let out a cry of frustration as Lucius disappeared. She knew he meant business, which meant she had to be out of the house within a month. Although that didn't mean she had to go empty handed she realised with a devious smirk. Apart from the study, Draco had left all the other furniture and fittings in the house. In the space of a month Ginny could strip the entire place, making sure she got what was owed to her as an abandoned wife.

Ginny's initial excitement about the plan soon faded the next day when she tried to remove a painting from the bedroom wall. While the painting came down fine and moved around the house with ease, it would just not leave the house. Ginny had tried flooing with it, but it remained in the fireplace. She'd tried apparating with it, but when she reappeared the painting had gone from her clutches and was sitting exactly where she'd departed the house from. She'd even tried just walking out of the door with it, but the painting would move no further than the threshold.

Ginny quickly discovered the same problem with the rest of the furniture and fittings. A visit to an amused Lucius informed her of the reason she couldn't take anything. In the end the only things she left with was her extensive clothes, make-up and jewellery collection, and a burning passion to ensure that Hermione didn't get to keep her husband. Ginny wasn't giving up on Draco without a fight, and she certainly wasn't going to sit back and let Hermione walk off with her husband.


	17. Chapter 16

It was early morning in the South of France and Hermione sat on the terrace of the villa she and Draco were staying in, drinking a freshly made cup of strong coffee. After everything that had happened with the Weasleys the couple had packed a bag each and headed to the South of France to spend some quality time together and to discuss their future. They were actually due to return home later that day, and Hermione had gotten up early so she could have a bit of time to think. The last six weeks with Draco had been amazing, but part of Hermione felt as though she didn't deserve to be happy with the blond wizard. Not after the way they'd left the Weasleys to discover the harsh truth about Ginny.

Almost as soon as they'd left The Burrow, Hermione had regretted that they'd ever mentioned the identity of Ron's killer being in the memories. Ginny's lies had been exposed and Hermione's name had been cleared, so there was no reason for the Weasleys to be hurt any more. Unfortunately it was too late to go back and change anything, so Hermione had to live with the guilt that she and Draco had caused yet more suffering for the family of redheads.

The guilt had been eating away at Hermione for the last six weeks, and even though she and Draco had spoken about what would happen once they returned home, Hermione was wondering if it was wise to go back to London. Maybe everyone would be better off if she just disappeared again. She'd caused enough hurt by her reckless pursuit for revenge.

"Here you are," Draco called as he emerged from the villa. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Just thinking," Hermione replied as her lover slid into the chair next to her.

"What about?" Draco asked. He'd noticed that every now and again that Hermione drifted off into her own world, and he hoped she wasn't having second thoughts about them.

"Everything," Hermione sighed. "We hurt a lot of people, Draco, and I'm not sure it's wise that I go back to London. I was so focused on getting revenge against Ginny that I didn't stop to think about the Weasleys. We never should have mentioned finding the killer in my memories. Ginny's lies had already being exposed, we were just being vindictive."

"I know," Draco admitted quietly. "I wish I hadn't said anything, but it just drove me mad that even once her scheming was exposed that Ginny kept trying to talk her way out of it. But there's nothing we can do now, and staying away and being miserable isn't going to make things any better. We need to return home and begin living our lives together."

"But what if our relationship is tainted?" Hermione questioned. "What if all the lies and scheming mean we're doomed to failure. How can we be happy together, considering how we got together?"

"Our relationship will fail or succeed, depending on our actions from now on, not our past actions. I suppose the real question is, do you want to try? Do you want to return home and give us a chance, or do you want to leave and forget we ever happened?"

Hermione looked at Draco and felt bad when she saw the hurt in his eyes. She'd never meant to make him doubt her feelings for him, or what she wanted from him. All she wanted to do was voice the worries that had been floating around in her head.

"I want to be with you more than anything," Hermione reassured her lover. "I'm just worried that I don't deserve to be happy. I purposefully seduced you and wrecked your marriage, all to get revenge on Ginny. I'm not a nice person."

"You're one of the best people I know," Draco said, taking hold of Hermione's hand. "Your actions were a result of being betrayed in the worst possible way, not just by Ginny, but by Potter and the Weasleys as well. You were hurt and angry, and if you were thinking clearly you would have acted differently."

"I want to believe that, but I don't think I can," Hermione admitted quietly. "As angry and hurt as I was, I knew what I was doing. It took weeks of planning and sneaking around to put my plan into motion. I knew what I was doing, I just didn't care about the consequences. All I wanted was to wreck Ginny's life like she wrecked mine."

"Hermione, I don't care what you did or why you did it," Draco reassured his girlfriend. "I love you, and that's all that matters to me. Besides, it's not as if you're going to do it again."

Hermione nodded, knowing Draco was right and she wouldn't behave so rashly in the future. The reason she'd been so hell bent on revenge against Ginny was because her life had been torn to shreds and she didn't have anything worthwhile in her life. That had all changed now she was with Draco. For the first time since Ron's death, Hermione had a reason to live and she wasn't going to throw away her chance of happiness. Her vengeful desires were gone, and now all she wanted was to build a future with Draco.

"I say we forget all about Ginny and her family," Draco announced. "We still have a few hours before we have to leave. What do you say we make the most of them?"

"What did you have in mind?" Hermione questioned with a smile.

"How about a swim," Draco grinned.

Before Hermione had a chance to answer, Draco had scooped her up in his arms and was carrying her towards the pool. Hermione tried to get away from him, but Draco kept a tight hold of Hermione.

"If you dare throw me in that pool, I'll kill you," Hermione warned.

Draco just grinned maliciously at Hermione, before jumping into the pool with her still in his arms. When they hit the water, Draco released his hold on Hermione and she managed to break the surface of the water spluttering.

"You foul git," Hermione spat at her lover as his head poked from the water.

"You know you love me really," Draco replied.

"Not right now I don't," Hermione huffed.

"I'll soon change that," Draco vowed, lunging for Hermione.

Hermione managed to dodge out of Draco's way, but the blond continued to pursue her until he corned her at the side of the pool. Within minutes their wet clothes were discarded and Hermione's anger evaporated as Draco made it up to her in the most pleasurable of ways.

**xXx**

Blaise was enjoying a nice relaxing afternoon when Draco and Hermione emerged from the floo network. He'd set his floo up with the one in the villa where the pair were staying, so the couple could return when they were ready. The previous day, Draco had sent a message letting him know they were coming back, so Blaise wasn't taken entirely by surprise by the pair's arrival.

"How was your holiday?" Blaise asked, greeting the couple with a wide smile. To be honest he'd missed having Hermione around the place, and it was very rare that he went so long without really talking to Draco.

"Great," Draco grinned. "And we've made a few plans for the future."

"Sit down and tell me all about them," Blaise said. "And I'll tell what you've been missing here."

Draco and Hermione settled down on the sofa together, as they filled Blaise in on what they'd been up to for the last six weeks and what their plans for the future were. Blaise was unsurprised that the couple were staying together, but he was surprised when they said they wouldn't be living together.

"It's too soon," Hermione told Blaise, when he inquired why they weren't moving in together. "We want this to work, so that means we're not rushing into anything. Draco will be returning to the manor, and I need to find myself somewhere to live."

"What's wrong with staying here?" Blaise questioned. "Don't you like it?"

"I love it, but it was only temporary," Hermione said. "Surely you don't want me living here full time."

"Why not? I like having you around, and it makes things easier for you two," Blaise replied. "I don't mind Draco stopping over, and you don't have to move your stuff again."

"If you don't mind I would love to stay here," Hermione grinned at Blaise, thrilled with his offer. "But as for moving stuff, I don't actually have any. We forgot to ask the Weasleys about it when we were there, and I don't think they'll be too keen to see us again."

"It's still your stuff, and you have a right to know what happened to it," Draco told his girlfriend. "Not to mention your cat. I'll go and see the twins tomorrow and speak to them. I've always gotten along fine with them."

"That was before you exposed Ginny as Ron's killer," Hermione pointed out. "Even Fred and George might not be friendly after that."

"I'm not sure the family know about Ginny," Blaise said. "At least if they do, they're hiding it well and haven't completely turned against her."

"How do you know that?" Hermione asked.

"They're putting on a united front following the news of the separation," Blaise replied. "Ginny tried to gain some sympathy by revealing all about you two, but Lucius made her lies about the pregnancy public knowledge. Her family have admitted being unimpressed by her lies, but they're sticking by her. I don't think they would be doing that if they knew the truth."

"I don't suppose they would," Draco agreed. "Maybe they couldn't work out she threw the curse."

"I guess we'll never know," Blaise shrugged.

"Do you know if Ginny has signed the divorce papers?" Draco asked his friend, while they were on the subject of his estranged wife.

"I don't think so," Blaise replied. "But you could always ask Lucius tonight at dinner."

"Dinner?" Draco frowned in confusion.

"Your parents have invited us all for dinner tonight," Blaise explained. "Narcissa dropped round yesterday asking if I'd heard from you and when I told her you were coming back today she insisted the three of us go round for dinner."

"So much for our relaxing first night back," Draco muttered to his girlfriend.

"Sorry," Blaise offered.

"It's not your fault, Blaise," Draco reassured his friend. "I know what mother's like, and if she was insisting she wouldn't have taken no for an answer. Besides, I need to check I can move back home for a bit. My parents might not want me back at the manor."

"Of course they'll want you back," Blaise laughed. "If they'd liked Ginny, you never would have left. The only reason they get you a house is because they didn't want Ginny living at the manor."

"True, once I move back I may never escape," Draco chuckled, before turning to Hermione. "I suppose if we're going to dinner tonight, I can show you around the manor. You'll need to be able to find your way around the place for when you visit."

"If your parents want me visiting. They weren't exactly thrilled with the news we're together," Hermione replied.

"They just weren't happy about the circumstances," Draco said. "But now things are beginning to get sorted with Ginny, they'll be fine with you visiting."

Hermione hoped Draco was right and his parents would come round to her being a part of their son's life. The last thing she wanted was to cause problems between Draco and his parents, especially as it was clear on their visit that Lucius and Narcissa thought the world of their son.

**xXx**

Dinner at the manor ended up being quite an enjoyable affair for Hermione. Lucius and Narcissa were nothing but welcoming towards her and the conversation flowed easily around the dinner table. Blaise was clearly at home with the Malfoys as he laughed and joked on with Draco's parents the entire time.

Over dinner nothing serious was discussed, but after dinner everyone settled in the front room and the subject of Ginny was raised. Lucius confirmed that the redhead hadn't signed the divorce papers, but she had vacated the house and Lucius had immediately rented it out. Draco also broached the topic of moving back home for a while and the suggestion was met by joy from Narcissa.

"Will you be coming alone?" Lucius asked his son, his eyes flicking over to where Hermione was sitting.

"Yes," Draco replied. "But Hermione will be a regular visitor and will probably stay over some nights."

"That's no problem," Narcissa reassured her son and his partner. "Your old room is exactly the way you left it, and we could always do up a few rooms nearby if you want a bit of privacy."

"I've also set up your study beside your old bedroom," Lucius told his son. "Although I did find something peculiar when I was moving the desk. Do you know the bottom drawer is full of ladies undergarments?"

"How did you get into the bottom drawer?" Draco asked his father as Blaise erupted into loud laughter while Hermione blushed bright red as she realised the drawer contained the knickers she'd left during their encounters. "I had a spell on that, sealing it shut."

"I know, that's what piqued my curiosity," Lucius admitted. "I just couldn't resist taking a peek to see what you were hiding."

"Why do you have a drawer full of women's underwear?" Narcissa asked her son.

"They're Hermione's," Draco muttered.

"Clearly they're mementoes of their relationship," Lucius told his wife. "I wish I'd thought of doing such a thing. Just think my drawers at work and in the study could be stuffed with your knickers, if I'd pinched them whenever you paid me a naughty visit."

Narcissa chuckled at her husband's suggestion while Blaise broke down in even more laughter. Draco meanwhile was becoming increasingly embarrassed, so he jumped up and pulled Hermione to her feet.

"Come on, I'll give you the tour," He told his girlfriend, pulling her out of the room.

"I made sure everything went back as I found them," Lucius called after his son. "You can carry on adding to your collection and I promise I won't disturb them again."

Draco groaned as Lucius's remark brought a fresh round of laughter from the front room. Vowing to move the underwear the first chance he got, Draco then proceeded to give Hermione a slow tour of the manor. There was no rush to return to Blaise and his parents, it was more important that Hermione got a chance to familiarise herself with the vast house. Hopefully she would be spending a lot of time at the manor in the future.


	18. Chapter 17

The day after returning from their extended break in France, Hermione decided she need to get her life in order. Since beginning her plan to exact revenge on Ginny she hadn't worked, but it was time to get organised and decide what she wanted to do with her life. Hermione had no intention of lounging around and letting Draco support her, she wanted to find a job she was interested in. Her job in Australia had been as boring as anything, but at the time she didn't care, however now she was bothered about her life again and she wanted a job she would truly like and would excel at.

While Blaise and Draco headed to see the Weasley twins in the hopes of getting some more information about the whereabouts of her belongings, Hermione settled down to scour through the job adverts in The Daily Prophet. Almost immediately she found two openings in the Ministry that interested her. One was in the Minister's office, and cited opportunities for promotions in the future, and the other was in the potions and spells research department.

Finding some parchment, Hermione set about sending off for application forms for both jobs. She'd just sent the letters off to the Ministry with Blaise's owl, which he'd given her permission to use, when the door to the penthouse opened and Blaise and Draco came in carrying two boxes each.

"Is that my stuff?" Hermione asked as the men dumped the boxes in the centre of the living room.

"Yeah," Draco replied. "The twins had it in their stockroom at the shop. Apparently after what happened, Molly wanted to throw it out but a few of the others wouldn't let her. They may have all been angry with you, but they were decent enough to remember that it was your stuff and they had no right to just dispose of it."

"I admit, I'm surprised to get any of it back. I thought it would have been long gone," Hermione said. "Did you ask about Crookshanks?" She asked, spotting one of his toys in the top of one of the boxes.

"They don't have him," Draco gently told his girlfriend. "The twins said he'd been moping around and barely eating for the months you were off with Potter and Weasley. A few days after the final battle, he just went out one day and never returned."

"He knew I wasn't returning for him," Hermione said sadly, dropping onto the sofa. "I should have remembered about him and taken him with me."

Draco moved over to the sofa and sat down next to his girlfriend, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders. "You weren't to know he was going to run away. Besides the way things were back then, you wouldn't have been welcome at The Burrow. They might very well had kicked you out without letting you take Crookshanks."

"I guess," Hermione sighed. She knew Draco had a point, but she still felt bad for abandoning her beloved cat.

"Why don't we take the boxes into your room, and we can sort them out," Draco suggested, wanting to take his girlfriend's mind off her cat.

"I'll put the kettle on and make some coffee," Blaise said as he headed into the kitchen.

"Don't help with the boxes, whatever you do," Draco called after his best friend as he picked up the first of the boxes.

"You can manage," Blaise called from the kitchen. "They've all got lightweight charms on them anyway."

Picking a box up for herself, Hermione discovered the boxes did in fact have lightweight charms on them. With the charms it took less than a minute to move the four boxes into Hermione's room. Once the boxes were in the room, Hermione settled down to begin to unpack while Draco perched on the bed, awaiting instructions. The first box Hermione delved into held a pile of her old clothes, and less than five minutes rummaging told her that everything could be gotten rid of. Most of it was too small, or she just wouldn't wear it these days as her style had evolved.

"Your school uniforms in here," Draco remarked as he put the box to one side so they could sort it and donate the good stuff to charity.

"And?" Hermione asked, barely looking up as she began to unpack a box full of trinkets from her childhood bedroom.

"And I've always wondered what it would be like to shag the Gryffindor Princess," Draco replied with a smirk.

Hermione looked up and frowned at Draco in confusion. "Don't you already know what that's like?"

"Yes, but the uniform would be as though I was with the younger version of you," Draco explained. "We both know the sexy confident witch you are now, is nothing like the bookworm goody-goody I went to school with."

"I get it," Hermione grinned. "The big bad Slytherin wants to seduce the innocent little Gryffindor."

"Yeah," Draco nodded. "Are you up for it? With a bit of magic I could transform one of the rooms in my wing of the Manor to look like a classroom, or even the library at Hogwarts?"

"We can keep the uniform," Hermione told her boyfriend. "Do you still have yours?"

"I've got all my school stuff in my trunk back at the manor," Draco replied as he salvaged Hermione's school uniform from the box of discarded clothes.

While Draco grabbed Hermione's uniform, she turned her attention back towards the box she was unpacking. A few seconds later the bedroom door opened and Blaise entered carrying a tray with three cups of coffee on. Also on the tray was a large envelope with Hermione's name on and the Ministry seal on the back.

"This arrived with my owl a few minutes ago," Blaise said to Hermione as he handed her the envelope.

"Why are the Ministry writing to you?" Draco questioned, recognising the seal on the back of the envelope.

"I've just sent off for some job applications," Hermione answered. "The ad in the Prophet said you would receive the forms quickly, but I didn't think they meant in under an hour."

"Why are you applying for jobs at the Ministry?" Draco asked his girlfriend.

"I need a job," Hermione shrugged. "I can't just stay her without paying my way."

"I don't need any rent or anything," Blaise told his friend's partner. "I'm just happy to have the company."

"It's not just that," Hermione replied. "I need money, I need a career. I can't just do nothing all day."

"I could give you a job," Draco offered. "You could do whatever you wanted at the family company."

"That wouldn't be a good idea," Hermione cautioned her boyfriend. "Let's keep our private life separate from our work life."

"I guess that means you wouldn't want me to offer you a job either," Blaise said. "I'm guessing you don't want to live and work with someone."

"Not really," Hermione admitted. "I'm quite happy to apply for these jobs, and see what happens."

Draco and Blaise both nodded, understanding where Hermione was coming from. Hermione told her boyfriend and his friend about the jobs she was applying for as they continued to unpack her belongings. Within an hour everything was unpacked and Hermione looked around the room with a smile. For the first time since before the war she felt settled and at home. Having her belongings around her really made her feel that she was ready to put down some roots and stay put for a while.

**xXx**

Less than a week after formally applying for the two jobs, Hermione was at the Ministry for her interviews. The morning was spent having an interview with the potions and spells research department, while the afternoon was taken up with her interview with Kingsley for a job in his office. Both interviews went great and she was offered both positions. Obviously the Ministry knew she had applied for both jobs, and Kingsley urged her to take a few days and think through her options. He reassured her that either job was hers for the taking and they wouldn't offer either job to anyone else until they heard back from her.

Once the interviews were over, and the job offers made, Hermione headed down to the atrium so she could go home. She knew which job she preferred, but she wanted to talk her options over with Draco before making any final decision. However, Hermione had just entered the atrium when she came face to face with a problem she hadn't even considered, Harry Potter. Until she found herself standing in front of her ex-boyfriend, Hermione had forgotten he worked at the Ministry, meaning she would see him on a regular basis if she took either job.

"Hermione, can we talk?" Harry asked as Hermione moved to brush past him.

"We have nothing to talk about," Hermione replied frostily.

"Please." Harry held his arm out to stop Hermione moving past him, but he had the sense to refrain from touching her. "Just five minutes."

Hermione was tempted to refuse and just leave the Ministry, but she found herself nodding and agreeing to give Harry five minutes of her time. Not wanting anyone to overhear them, Harry manoeuvred them so they were standing against the far wall of the atrium. From where they were standing no-one could sneak up on them and overhear their conversation.

"Well, what do you want?" Hermione demanded. "I don't have all day."

"I'm sorry," Harry whispered. "I'm sorry for believing Ginny's lies. I know it's too late for us, but I want you to know I never stopped loving you. In fact I still love you."

"No, you don't," Hermione replied flatly. "If you loved me, you never would have believed Ginny's lies. We were friends since we started school, how could you believe I was capable of doing what she was accusing me of?"

"I was grieving for Ron," Harry said sheepishly, even though he knew it wasn't much of an excuse. "I'd just lost my best friend and wasn't thinking straight."

"Yet you still believed it for nearly two years," Hermione retorted. "You were the one person who should have stuck by me and believed in me. Do you have any idea how much it hurts to have the person you're in love with not believe in you? You broke my heart, Harry. You shattered it into a million pieces, and you destroyed seven years of great memories."

"I'm so sorry," Harry whispered. Since finding out the truth he'd been eaten up with guilt over the way he'd treated Hermione in the aftermath of Ron's death.

Hermione shook her head sadly. "Sorry, isn't enough. You can never change the fact that you honestly believed I was capable of such a terrible thing. You showed what you truly think of me, and there's no going back from there. Just leave me alone, Harry."

Biting back the tears that were threatening to fall from discussing old wounds, Hermione hurried away from Harry and made her way over to the fireplaces so she could floo back to the flat. Her conversation with Harry had made one thing very obvious to her, she couldn't work at the Ministry. Every time she saw her former boyfriend she would be reminded of the betrayal and rejection she'd suffered at his hands, and that wouldn't be healthy for her. What she needed was a clean break from Harry and the Weasleys. She needed a job somewhere that she wasn't likely to run into any of them.

Once back at the flat, Hermione allowed herself to shed a few tears as she thought back on all that she'd lost. Her loss of composure was only brief, before she pulled herself together and headed into the bedroom to undress. After stripping off her formal clothes that she'd been wearing for the interviews, Hermione had a long bath before she started to get ready for dinner.

Blaise was away on business, meaning Hermione and Draco would have the flat to themselves for a few days, but tonight they were having dinner at the manor with Lucius and Narcissa. Hermione knew that Draco's parents were still uncomfortable with how they'd gotten together, but she was pleased that her status as a muggleborn was slowly becoming less of an issue. Both Lucius and Narcissa had made the effort to get to know her as a witch in her own right, not just label her as a muggleborn and deem her worthless. No doubt they would still rather prefer that Draco was involved with a pureblood witch, but the fact she made their son happy cancelled everything out and Hermione knew they wouldn't cause any major problems.

Once Hermione was ready she flooed to the manor, where Draco was waiting for her in the floo room. Draco greeted her with a deep kiss, before taking hold of her hand and leading her to the front room. Lucius and Narcissa were seated in the front room and they both greeted Hermione with a warm smile and told her how pleased they were to see her again. After a few minutes of small talk in the front room the two couple made their way to the dining table where they proceeded to have dinner.

"Draco was telling me you had a couple of interviews at the Ministry today," Lucius said to Hermione. "How did they go?"

"Good. I was offered both jobs, and given time to make a decision on which one I want," Hermione replied.

"That's great," Draco smiled at his girlfriend. "Which one are you going to take?"

"Neither." Hermione's answer shocked all three Malfoys and they all just looked at her in bewilderment. "I was leaning towards the one in the research department," She explained. "But on my way out I ran into Harry. I can't work in the same building as him, not after everything that happened. Every time I see him I remember Ron's death and what happened after that, I can't live reliving the worst moments of my life every day."

"That's perfectly understandable," Narcissa said sympathetically. "You'll be better off finding a job somewhere where you won't have to face your past every day."

"That's what I thought," Hermione said. "I just have to find something suitable now."

"Is it research into new potions and spells that really interest you?" Lucius questioned. "Or is there something else you're passionate about?"

"I'm pretty passionate about the rights of magical creatures, but I did love the idea of being involved in inventing new spells and potions, or tweaking current ones to improve them," Hermione replied.

"Would you be interested in a research job at St Mungo's?" Lucius asked. "I know the wizard in charge of their research department and they're always looking for bright witches and wizards to join them. Of course they research mainly medical potions and spells, but I could speak to him and see if there's any openings if you're interested."

"I would really appreciate that," Hermione smiled at her boyfriend's father. "Thank you, Lucius."

"Any time," Lucius smiled back at Hermione as they continued to have dinner.

Once dinner was over they all retreated to the front room and while Narcissa and Draco were talking about Narcissa's charity work, Lucius was telling Hermione a bit more about the research department at St Mungo's. By the time Hermione and Draco headed back to the flat for the night, Hermione was crossing her fingers that Lucius could get her an interview at St Mungo's. The job sounded even better than the one at the Ministry, and Hermione could see herself being very happy working at the wizarding hospital. It would certainly keep her away from Harry and the Weasleys, and more importantly it was a job where she would be making a difference to the wizarding world.


	19. Chapter 18

After his brief conversation with Hermione at the Ministry, Harry couldn't get his ex-girlfriend off his mind for days. He kept running over everything that had happened in the aftermath of Ron's death, and wishing he'd reacted differently. Hermione was right, he'd let her down and nothing he could say or do could make it right again. The one time she'd needed him the most and he'd failed her, he'd ostracised her and sent her away when what she really needed was his love and support.

Harry's regret over his past actions became even greater when Kingsley casually mentioned that Hermione had turned down the two jobs she'd been interviewing for the day he'd seen her. Harry picked up enough to know she'd been offered either job, and Kingsley had been convinced she was going to accept one of them. However something had changed her mind after she'd left the Minister's office and Harry suspected that something was him. Not that he could blame Hermione for not wanting to be around him, he just hoped that she had other options for work and wasn't struggling because of him.

Almost a week after running into Hermione, Harry was still brooding about the past. Over the past week everyone in the Auror Department had been steering clear of him unless necessary, so Harry was surprised when he'd no sooner sat down than a wizard from the Department of Mysteries entered the room and approached his desk.

"We've cleared up those memories you asked us to look at," The wizard told Harry.

Harry's eyes widened in recognition as he realised just what memories had been cleared up. After the pensieve at The Burrow broke and Hermione's memories fell onto the floor, Harry had brought them into the Ministry and sent them down to the memory specialists in the Department of Mysteries. He hadn't held out much hope of the memories been resorted, especially since it had been almost two months since he dropped them off and hadn't heard anything about them since.

"Are they viewable?" Harry checked.

"They're crystal clear," The wizard replied, placing a vial on Harry's desk that contained the silver strands of Hermione's memories.

"Thanks," Harry said, picking up the vial and slipping it into the safety of his desk drawer. He had paperwork to do that morning, but after lunch he would check to see if one of the pensieves in the department was free and view the memories to see if he could get any answers regarding Ron's death.

After a seemingly endless morning, Harry grabbed a quick bite to eat before grabbing a pensieve and settling in one of the interrogation rooms. Locking the door, and displaying the signal that the room was in use, Harry poured Hermione's memories into the pensieve. After taking a few minutes to prepare himself for repeatedly witnessing Ron's death, Harry plunged into the pensieve to begin his investigation.

It didn't take long for Harry to begin to form a picture of what had happened, unfortunately he didn't like what he was seeing. Praying he was wrong, Harry continued to delve into the memories until after an hour he was forced to admit he was seeing things right. Ginny had been the one to throw the curse that hit Ron. Harry was in no doubt that the curse hadn't been meant for her brother, it had been meant for Hermione, but the fact remained Ginny still killed Ron.

Still trying to digest what he'd discovered, Harry returned Hermione's memories to the vial and returned the pensieve to where it belonged. He then locked the memories safely in his desk and pondered on what to do with his newfound knowledge. On one hand he wanted to tell the Weasleys since he felt they deserved to know the truth about what had happened, but on the other hand he recognised that the truth would do more harm than good. The truth would tear them apart, and he feared Molly and Arthur might never recover from discovering that Ginny was responsible for Ron's death. Ginny was a murderer and Harry had no doubt in his mind that she deserved to rot in Azkaban for her crimes, but he wasn't sure if he could bear to tear apart the family he considered to be his own.

By the end of the day, Harry was fairly sure he was going to keep the awful truth from the Weasleys, but he wanted answers from Ginny. He wanted to know what had possessed her to throw the killing curse at one of her friends. Even that fact that Hermione was with him wasn't enough reason to want to kill her.

Instead of going home when he left work, Harry headed round to Ginny's small flat, wanting to talk to her and get some answers as soon as possible. The redhead had bought the flat using money that she'd gotten from selling a few pieces of jewellery she'd gotten during her brief marriage to Draco. Harry knew Ginny had gotten a part time job in a fancy clothes shop in Diagon Alley, but he also knew that unless she was going to carry on selling her jewellery and designer clothes that the wage wouldn't be enough for her to live on for long. However, Ginny seemed determined not to face reality and she was clinging onto the fact that she was still a Malfoy until the divorce came through or she managed to stop it, something she was proving unsuccessful at.

"Harry, what are you doing here?" Ginny asked as she greeted Harry at the door and ushered him inside. So far Harry hadn't visited her flat and since discovering her lies about Hermione, he'd barely spoken to her so his presence was rather surprising.

"We need to talk," Harry announced as he entered the small flat.

"Do you want a drink?" Ginny asked. "I can make tea or coffee, or I think I may have some wine somewhere."

"I don't want a drink," Harry interrupted, stopping Ginny just as she was about to head off into the kitchen. "Just sit down so we can talk."

Ginny was rather taken aback by Harry's sharp tone of voice, but recognising he wasn't going to take no for an answer she perched on the sofa. Harry didn't sit, instead he stood in front of the window and Ginny swore she could see hate swimming in his bright green eyes.

"What's going on?" She asked hesitantly.

"I got Hermione's memories back today," Harry said. "I'd sent them down to the Department of Mysteries to see if they could clean them up."

Ginny gulped nervously, not liking where the conversation was heading. As far as she knew the whole matter had been dropped when she'd smashed the pensieve. Harry had been fairly sure the memories were beyond saving, and as far as she knew he'd never mentioned having them examined at the Ministry.

"Don't you want to know if the memories were restored?" Harry asked.

"Were they?" Ginny whispered.

"Yes, they're crystal clear."

Ginny briefly shut her eyes before looking at Harry and acknowledging that he'd seen the truth. He'd examined the memories, and had seen enough to know she was guilty. Or at least he had a good enough suspicion that she'd thrown the curse, without having seen the memoires herself she had no idea how much Hermione remembered about what had happened.

"And you've been in them?" Ginny checked.

"Repeatedly," Harry replied. "And I've seen who killed Ron," He added accusingly.

"It wasn't supposed to end like that," Ginny whispered, seeing no point in denying what Harry already knew.

"I don't suppose it was," Harry snorted. "It was supposed to end in Hermione's death. Do you want to tell me why you tried to kill her? She was your friend?"

"She was a traitor," Ginny hissed. "She stole you from me. Hermione knew how I felt about you, she knew I'd loved you since I was ten years old, and still she stole you from me without a second thought."

"She didn't steal me Ginny, I went willingly," Harry replied, dropping into the chair beside the fire. "Our relationship was going nowhere, the war was just a handy excuse to let you down gently."

"Why would you do that?" Ginny asked. "I worshipped you."

"That was the problem," Harry answered. "You didn't love me. You didn't love Harry, you loved The Boy Who Lived. You were besotted with me before you even met me, that isn't love, its obsession. I realised pretty quick that you didn't love me, you didn't know enough about me to love me. I know I should have handled our breakup better, but I didn't want to hurt you, or the rest of your family. Everyone was so convinced we were meant to be together, but I just couldn't see it."

"You would have if you'd given us a chance," Ginny argued. "If Hermione hadn't come along and seduced you, we would have been happy together. We would have gotten back together after the war, and none of this would have happened. Ron would be here, and everything would be okay."

"Everything would have been okay if you hadn't tried to kill Hermione," Harry snapped. "Everything is your fault, Ginny. You threw the curse, you killed Ron, and to top it all off you destroyed dozens of lives with your lies."

"I didn't mean for any of that to happen," Ginny protested feebly. "Hermione was supposed to die, then everything would have been okay. Instead Ron saved her and everything went to hell. I was so shaken that I turned around and ran back to the castle, hoping the curse hadn't hit Ron. I was then knocked unconscious as I entered the castle and when I woke up my whole world collapsed when they told me Ron was dead."

"I will never understand why you threw the curse, or forgive you for it, but why did you then start with the lies?" Harry asked. "Why blame Hermione?"

"I was angry, she was meant to die not Ron," Ginny admitted. "I blurted out the first thing that came into my head and when I realised it would result in everyone disowning her I carried on with the lies. I was hoping once she was gone things could return to the way they were supposed to be."

"I guess I messed up that plan by not coming crawling back to you," Harry said bitterly. "So what happened once you realised you weren't getting me back? Did you deliberately set your sights on Malfoy?"

Ginny shook her head in response. "No. I was still convinced you would come back to me, Draco was just a bit of fun. But the longer I was with him the more I forgot about you and the more I wanted to be with him."

"And what about the lies you told him?" Harry asked. "Did you ever think of the lives you were ruining there? Did it never occur to you that other people would be hurt by your pregnancy lie? Molly and Arthur thought they had lost a grandchild, as did Lucius and Narcissa. Not to mention Malfoy thought he'd lost his child. They all grieved for a baby that never existed."

"If Hermione hadn't come along, none of this would have ever been discovered," Ginny complained. "Draco and I would have had children, and no-one would have really remembered the one we'd lost. I know people were upset at the time, but they got over it, and our future children would have erased the hurt of the miscarriage."

"You are the most self-centred cow I've ever met," Harry said, looking at Ginny in disgust. "You really don't care about the lives you've destroyed. The only thing you're bothered about is Hermione, and blaming her for everything that's wrong in your life."

"That's because she is to blame for everything," Ginny spat angrily. "She started all this by taking you off me. As if that wasn't enough she then comes back, steals my husband and turns my family against me."

"You're to blame for all of that Ginny, not Hermione," Harry said. "You and I weren't together when I got with Hermione, she did nothing wrong. And if Draco had truly loved you, which he didn't and we all knew that since he only married you because you were pregnant, he never would have cheated on you. And as for your family being angry with you, again you brought that on with your lies. If you hadn't lied to people they wouldn't be mad at you. Of course they'll be more than mad if they ever discover the real truth about what happened to Ron."

"You wouldn't tell them," Ginny gasped.

"You're a murdering cow, give me one reason why I shouldn't report you to the Ministry," Harry said. "You deserve to be rotting in hell for what you've done."

"It would destroy Mum and Dad. Please Harry, don't ruin their lives," Ginny begged, tears falling from her eyes as she pleaded for leniency.

"There's nothing I would love more than to turn you in," Harry admitted. Part of the reason he wasn't turning Ginny in was because he didn't believe the Weasleys would have done so if they'd seen the memories a few months ago. He suspected they would have disowned Ginny completely, but he honestly couldn't see the family turning her in to the authorities.

"Please don't," Ginny begged in a hollow voice.

"Your family mean more to me than anything in the world. They're the only true family I've ever had," Harry said. "I don't want to be the one to destroy them by revealing the truth. However, if I'm going to keep quiet you've got to prove to me that you're going to change."

"How do I do that?" Ginny asked warily.

"By trying to make amends for some of the hurt you've caused," Harry answered. "Firstly you have to stop the lies and face up to the fact Hermione isn't the enemy. And secondly, you're going to sign the divorce papers."

Ginny stubbornly shook her head. "No. I won't sign those papers."

"Do the right thing, Ginny. Let him go," Harry said. "You've caused him and Hermione enough heartache, just let them be happy together. Sign the papers and I won't tell the rest of the family the truth. You can move on with your life and try to make amends with the family."

Ginny opened her mouth to argue again, but Harry's hard stare caused her to close it again and nod in defeat. Signing the divorce papers and losing Draco to Hermione was a small price to pay for keeping her killer secret from her family.

"You've got to the end of the week," Harry said as he stood up. "Once you've signed the papers, I'll talk to the family and tell them Hermione's memories were irretrievable."

"What if they ask Hermione for another set?" Ginny asked worriedly.

"Molly was already keen to put it behind them, I don't think that's likely," Harry replied.

"Thank you, Harry," Ginny said, smiling at her former boyfriend. "Thank you for everything you're doing for me."

"I'm not doing it for you," Harry snarled. "I despise you, and after this I want nothing more to do with you. I'm doing this for the rest of the family. They don't deserve to have their hearts broken because of your actions. Don't for one minute think I'm covering for you to save you. If I didn't love the rest of the family so much, I would make sure the whole world knew what an evil little cow you really are."

Leaving a stunned Ginny in his wake, Harry turned and left the flat. All he could do now was hope Ginny did the right thing and signed the divorce papers. If she didn't, he would reluctantly follow through on his threat to turn her in for murder.

A few days later Ginny did indeed sign the papers, so Harry kept his side of the bargain and informed the Weasleys that Hermione's memories were irretrievable. As expected, Harry was right about Molly wanting to put the past behind them. After briefly debating whether or not to ask Hermione for a second set, the family made the decision to leave things as they were. They now knew Ron had died a hero, not as a sacrifice, and they were content to leave it at that. Knowing who exactly had killed him wasn't going to bring him back, nothing would and diving into the past would only open up old wounds.

**xXx**

The same night Harry and the Weasleys were making the decision to leave the past behind them, Draco arrived at Blaise's flat with good news. Neither Hermione nor Blaise were expecting the blond that night so they were both taken aback to see him springing unannounced from the flames of the fire. Before Draco had arrived the two flatmates had been sharing a glass of wine while Hermione filled Blaise in on how her new job at St Mungo's was going. True to his word Lucius had put in a good word for Hermione and she'd started her job in the research department a few days earlier.

"What's got you so excited?" Blaise laughed as a beaming Draco entered the flat.

"I'm a free man," Draco grinned. "Ginny's signed the divorce papers today."

"What made her change her mind?" Hermione asked. "I thought she was adamant she wasn't going to sign."

"I have no idea what changed her mind, I'm just grateful something did," Draco replied, sitting down beside Hermione on the sofa. "This way I'll be completely rid of her in a matter of weeks, instead of years."

"Is this going to affect you two now?" Blaise questioned. "Will you be getting married once the divorce is through?"

"No," Draco and Hermione both answered together.

"This changes nothing as far as we're concerned," Draco told his friend. "I'm just pleased to be rid of Ginny quickly."

"Our relationship won't be affected by the divorce," Hermione added. "We're still going to take things at our own speed and not rush into anything. Just because Draco will be free to marry in a few months doesn't mean we will be. If we ever get to that stage, it will be a long time from now."

"Yeah, I have no intention of getting married again in a hurry," Draco said. "Next time it's for keeps, and I need to know it's going to last."

"So you're keeping things slow and steady," Blaise concluded. "Even so we can still celebrate your divorce, can't we?"

"Definitely," Draco grinned at his friend.

Jumping up Blaise headed into the kitchen when he grabbed a wine glass for Draco and a fresh bottle of wine. Returning to the front room, he filled up Draco's glass and topped up his and Hermione's. He then raised his glass in a toast to Draco's divorce.

"Here's to getting rid of the redheaded bitch," He announced.

"To being free," Draco said, as he stood up to join Blaise.

"To the future," Hermione added as she got up and joined the men.

Clinking glasses the trio celebrated Draco's divorce and looked towards the future. Now Ginny was history, they need never have to think about her again. Hermione and Draco could concentrate on their relationship and building their own life together.

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><p><strong>AN – I'm sure some people are disappointed that Ginny didn't end up in jail for her actions. That was very much my original intention when I began this story, but with some stories they sometimes change as you write them as was the case with this one. Even so I hope people have enjoyed this story. There's just an epilogue to come and then we're done with this story. Thanks for everyone for reading, and especially thanks to everyone who has reviewed/favourited/followed. **


	20. Epilogue

**A/N – I want to say thank you to the majority of people who left reviews for the previous chapter. I was expecting more hate, but it was nice I didn't receive too much. It was nice to see that while people were disappointed that Ginny didn't end up in Azkaban, the majority respected the direction I went with. It might not have been the ending I'd envisioned when I started the story, but it was the one that felt right when I wrote it and even now I'm satisfied with the way the story turned out. **

**The epilogue is just a small chapter to round things off. I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for reading my stories.**

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><p><span><strong>Five years later.<strong>

In his hotel room in Italy, Draco eagerly packed his bag so he could check out and return home. While foreign trips had once been a regular part of his working life, these days he only travelled when necessary. Draco would fully admit that when he was married to Ginny he would often stay away for a few nights when it wasn't necessary. Part of that was to do with Hermione once their affair started, but mostly it was because he didn't want to be at home. Nowadays Draco didn't feel the need to get away from home.

Although even when he was away, he often got a visit from Hermione. Hermione never announced she was coming, he would just run into her in the hotel and she would act as though the whole thing was a coincidence. Basically they replayed their actions while they were having an affair, and Draco would take Hermione back to his room for the night. In the morning she would always be gone, leaving her knickers as a parting gift. Then when he got home they would act as though they hadn't seen each other since he left on his business trip. Draco knew to other people their behaviour might seem bizarre, but it kept the excitement in their relationship and they were more than happy with their little games.

Unfortunately this trip hadn't produced a visit from Hermione. Hermione still worked at St Mungo's, but she'd had a couple of promotions in the last five years and was now a senior member of the research team. When Draco had left for Italy, she'd been snowed under working on a new potion so he hadn't really expected her to pay him a visit. However without her visit he was missing her acutely and he couldn't wait to get home to his wife.

At the thought that Hermione was now his wife, Draco couldn't help but smile. The couple had only been married for six months, and were still basking in the glow of being newlyweds. Their progression to being a married couple had been a slow one, with both of them wanting to be sure before they rushed into anything. After Draco's divorce from Ginny, Hermione remained living with Blaise for two years, although the couple did still spend almost every night either at the flat or the Manor. After two years they'd decided to move in together and had bought a lovely house a few miles from the manor. Eighteen months later, Draco had taken Hermione away for a romantic weekend where he proposed to her. Planning the wedding took almost a year and six months ago the couple were married in a quiet ceremony on a private island owned by the Malfoys.

Eager to get back to his wife, Draco hurriedly finished the rest of his packing and headed down to check out of the hotel. Once he was checked out, Draco headed over to the international floo network and flooed back to his office in London. From there he briefly checked with Lucius that everything was alright with the business, before heading home. It was only the middle of the afternoon, but hopefully he could be unpacked and settled in before Hermione arrived home from work. Then they could spend the weekend making up for the fact they hadn't seen each other for two days.

When Draco arrived home, he headed straight upstairs and into the master bedroom. Throwing his bag onto the bed, he pulled off his shoes and placed them neatly in the wardrobe. Just as he was about to open his bag and begin unpacking the door to the adjoining bathroom opened and Hermione appeared.

Draco smiled at the unexpected sight of his wife. "Hi, gorgeous. I didn't expect you to be home."

"I was only working a half day," Hermione answered, entering the room and walking over to greet her husband properly. "I knew you were due back so I thought we could spend a few extra hours together."

"I like the sound of that," Draco grinned, before capturing Hermione's lips with his.

The couple shared an intense kiss, and when they parted they were both slightly out of breath. When Draco leant in for a second kiss, Hermione surprisingly stopped him.

"What's wrong?" He frowned. He couldn't remember Hermione ever refusing a kiss from him.

"I want to talk to you about something," Hermione said, sitting down on the bed and pulling Draco down beside her. "I think I might be pregnant."

"What do you mean, you think?" Draco asked. "Haven't you done a test?"

"Not yet," Hermione replied. "I thought we could do it together."

Draco began to ask why they needed to do the test together, when understanding suddenly dawned on him. After what he'd gone through with Ginny's lies about being pregnant, she was reassuring him that she really was expecting their child. While Draco was touched by her gesture, he was also worried that she felt the need to prove her pregnancy to him. He knew Hermione would never lie to him about expecting a baby, and he'd thought she knew just how much he trusted her.

"That really isn't necessary you know," Draco told his wife. "I trust you Hermione. I know you won't lie to me like she did. If you'd come to me to tell me you were pregnant, I never would have questioned you."

"I know that," Hermione replied. "I just thought it might be nice if we did it together. I've found the spell to detect pregnancies, it can even detect if it's a boy or a girl."

"Isn't it too early for that?" Draco asked. "I know magical medicine is a lot more advanced than muggle medicine, but I still thought you had to be further along to detect the sex of the baby."

"Technically it just gives you a reading on what you're most likely to have," Hermione corrected herself. "But it's a very advanced test and is rarely wrong."

"So how do you do this test?" Draco asked.

Hermione jumped up and retrieved a book that was sitting on her bedside table. Opening the book to the correct page, she showed Draco the spell and the couple read over the instructions. Once they were satisfied they knew what they were doing, Hermione settled back against the pillows and pulled up her top, revealing her flat stomach.

"You want me to cast the spell?" Draco checked when Hermione didn't get her wand out.

"Yes," Hermione nodded. "Now let's see if you're going to become a Daddy anytime soon."

Following the instructions in the book carefully, Draco pulled out his wand and began casting the spell. The spell formed a yellow orb that floated towards Hermione's stomach. Slowly the orb descended on Hermione, until it looked to have disappeared inside her. Five seconds later the orb started to rise back out of Hermione's body, only this time it wasn't yellow, it was pale blue.

"A boy," Draco whispered in awe as the orb shimmered for a few minutes before disappearing completely. If Hermione had been expecting a girl the orb would have been pink, whereas if she wasn't pregnant at all it would have remained yellow.

"It looks like I'll have to make an appointment with the healers," Hermione remarked as she pulled her top down and sat up.

"I can't believe we're having a baby," Draco said, looking slightly overwhelmed by the news.

"Is it not what you want?" Hermione asked, biting her lip. Personally she was thrilled with the news, but she didn't want her pregnancy to cause problems between them.

"I'm thrilled, it's just a bit of a shock," Draco reassured his wife. "This wasn't what I expected when I came home."

"But you're happy that we're having a baby," Hermione clarified.

"Not just any baby, our son," Draco corrected with a smile. "I may still be a bit stunned, but this is the best news I've ever had. I can't wait to share it with everyone."

"Not so fast," Hermione chuckled, pleased that Draco's nerves had calmed down and he seemed genuinely excited that they were having a baby. "Before we tell anyone, I want to make sure everything is okay. Let's wait until we've seen the healers before we tell a soul."

"I can manage that," Draco promised his wife. "When exactly can we see the healer?"

"I'll book an appointment on Monday," Hermione said. "I'll pop up to the antenatal department during my lunch break."

"Make sure you let me know the second you know when the appointment is," Draco told his wife. "I'm going to be there for you the entire way. I'll be at every appointment, and when you have the baby I'm going to be right at your side."

Hermione laughed at Draco's enthusiasm, knowing he meant every word of it. And sure enough he did, he was at every single hospital appointment with Hermione and when she went into labour he was at her side the entire time as she gave birth to their son, Scorpius Malfoy.

**The End.**


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